The one where Roxas does the chasing
by DBZHobbit
Summary: Roxas starts to fall for the mysterious redhead in school. His twin is loved up which doesn't make it any easier. Let's see what happens when Roxas has to chase after Axel for a change. AU, Akuroku, Soriku, Cleon.
1. Chapter 1

This is for Darkenglishrose as she turned to me one day and said, "At the beginning of fics, Roxas always thinks Axel is an asshole. I'd love to see one where HE has to do the chasing" so, here it is!

Warnings: Language and Akuroku... more just Roku in this chap but I'm working on it.

The one where Roxas does the chasing

Click

"Tonight on the show we have a special guest singer-"

Click

"And then we add the salmon to the pan-"

Click

Bang! "Take that!" –

Click

"But Tiffany! You said you loved me, why where you at the other frat house?"

"Why is late night TV so crap?" Roxas sighed as he hit the off button on the remote and the screen went black with a small, disappointed sound. It was late, very late. Which meant Sora was late, very late. He had decided to wait up for his twin to return from his 'date' with Riku. Roxas didn't trust the silver-haired boy as far as he could throw him, and although Roxas was quite strong, Riku was a whole lot bigger than him.

Suddenly the he heard keys scratch around the lock, he got up and went to the living room door where he could see the hallway. Sure enough, there was Sora trying to take off his shoes as quiet as he can "You know, the eleven on the clock is the one with the double number one right? Not the one by itself" The blonde said haughtily. Sora looked up, confused for a second as to where the voice was coming from, then came the patented Sora Grin, like he could get away with anything.

"Sorry! I lost track of time"

"Yeah, I bet you did. I'm going to bed" Roxas turned to go up the stairs

"Don't you want to hear about my date?" Sora was trotting after him, far too happy for that early in the morning

"Not particularly, no"

"Aw! Come on, why not?"

"I don't want to hear about your date with Riiiiiikuuuuuu" said Roxas, imitating his brother whilst climbing the stairs

"Stop doing that! I do not sound like that!"

"Well I don't want to hear about your date"

"Whhhhhhhhhhhhhhyyyyyyyy?"

"See," Roxas was smugly standing in the doorway to his bedroom, "You do sound like that. Night" then he smiled and shut the door.

"Roxas! You're so annoying!!"

From the other side of the door Roxas heard Sora stomp off to his room and slam his door, no doubt pulling his cell phone out of his pocket and dialling Riku's number before he even got over the threshold. Roxas sighed; at least he knew he was safe. He'd only met Riku a few times and so wasn't sure what the taller boy was capable of. The blonde slumped down onto his bed with his arm over his eyes. Why was his twin so infatuated with the 'bad boy' type? Sora had been very open about his sexuality from the beginning, he was fine with his choice of lifestyle, it was his choice of men he worried about.

Roxas regretted dumping himself on his bed fully clothed as he woke up like that the next morning. After undressing, showering and redressing he went down to the kitchen to make their breakfast. The Twins' parents worked abroad and so they were left to their own devices most of the time, Roxas had taken over the role as parent as he was by far the more mature of the two. This left him open to Sora's teasing as he was "Fifteen going on Fifty" which he annoyingly never had a witty retort to.

"G'Morning!!" Sora cheered as he came down the stairs and launched straight into the cereal that Roxas had poured out for him.

"How are you so happy all the time? Seriously, do you eat pep pills for snacks or something?" Roxas was chugging down his coffee trying to feel human at eight in the morning.

"What's wrong with being happy?" He'd finished his cereal now and was onto his juice, orange, no pulp of course.

"It's annoying this early"

"You say it's annoying all the time"

Roxas grunted in reply, it was then Sora mumbled into his glass "S'better than being all emo like you"

"What?"

"Nothing!" The brunette promptly ran off to get his books for the day, leaving Roxas with the dishes who practically threw them in the dishwasher, grumbling about how can someone so stupid and childish be related to him, let alone his twin.

"That's it," Roxas thought, bad mood looming "I'm getting my grump on today"

Luckily Bastion High was only a short walk from their house, as soon as the two boys entered the gate Sora spotted Riku by some of the older boys and ran over to him. Riku pulled Sora into his arms and planted a firm kiss directly on his lips. Sora looked blissful, Roxas felt slightly ill. Fortunately for him he heard his name being called, when he looked he saw Hayner waving wildly at him with Pence and Olette in tow.

"Hey guys," he said walking over

"Hi Roxas" smiled Olette, Pence nodded his welcome and Hayner just grabbed him from behind.

"Hey Roxas! Guess what?"

"Erm.. What?"

"We heard something about Seifer you might like to know!" Hayner sang

"Oh really?" Roxas grinned, Seifer and his gang hadn't got along with Roxas and his friends since they were toddlers, the only change was that their fights were no longer over the sandbox but had escalated to more important things; like who gets to go to their favourite arcade.

Hayner was practically dancing "Seifer got strung up by Cloud!"

"What!" Roxas laughed "Where? When? Why did we miss it?"

Hayner was too busy cackling from amusement so Pence took up the story "He was lurking around Leon's house and Cloud found him"

Roxas stopped laughing, "What was he doing creeping around Leon's?"

Pence shrugged "Nobody knows why. He wont tell anyone either. Everyone knows about it though, you can't practically stalk a senior without it getting spread around"

The bell cut their conversation short and they all went to class, Hayner still chuckling to himself. The teacher had already started when Sora and Riku walked in late, the former looking flustered and the latter, smug. Roxas rolled his eyes and returned to his English. This was until a note rudely hit his ear and dropped itself in the way of his pen. He looked across the aisle and saw Hayner giving him a thumbs up, subtle as always. Roxas looked at the scrap of paper in front of him "Do you want to come to Port Royal tonight?" he eyed his friend and scribbled back

"Got to make dinner" when Hayner read this he clicked his tongue in annoyance.

What Roxas got back was "Let his boyfriend baby-sit him. He can cope without you for one night" he looked over at Riku and Sora. They were across the classroom and Riku was poking the back of Sora's leg with his own every now and again, causing the smaller boy to giggle. Roxas sighed, glanced down to the pen-covered scrap then he wrote on it. "Yeah. Ok."

Port Royal was the local hang out for the teenagers of Radiant Garden; it was an arcade that was conveniently placed next to a fast food hut and a smoothie bar and so fulfilled all adolescent needs. Atop of the large double doors to enter the arcade was a replica treasure chest filled with gold, Roxas could never tell what type of money it was but the skeletal face that over looked the chest seemed to be Aztec. As he and the others walked up to the arcade they could see that it was busy as usual, the owner was standing outside greeting his favourite customers "Ah! Hayner and friends! Hello!"

"Hi Luxord!" Olette beamed. The tall blonde man had always caught her eye, Roxas assumed it was something to do with the immaculately kept goatee and the way he always looked mischievous.

"Why, if it isn't my little lady!" Needless to say, Luxord played up to any crushes he found out about, besotted girls were paying customers after all. "You're favourite game is free" He winked and Olette giggled and scurried inside to her DDR game. The boys followed her in, inside Port Royal was huge and it contained every arcade game under the sun. There was something for everyone, Olette had her DDR, there was an RPG for Pence and Hayner and Roxas enjoyed the racing games. In Port Royal you can race anything, there was a skiing machine, cars, spaceships, you can even race logs down a river but that one wasn't quite as fun. Their favourite of course, was the motorbike race games as you actually got to sit on a model bike and steer by leaning from side to side. Upon entering, the gang split up as they usually did and Roxas and Hayner headed over to the best racing game: 'Ducati World Series', the pair had spent so much money playing this game that together, they probably could have bought the actual motorbike.

However, when they got to the game it was already being played by some older boys "Oh no, we got beat to it" Roxas complained, Hayner also looked put down until suddenly his face lit up "Roxas! Look at that guy's score!" Roxas managed to peer between the heads of the other boys to look at the screen of the one currently playing. It was the best score he'd ever seen. "Woah" The bike was weaving in and out of the others, taking the corners perfectly and all at high speed. The two young boys tried to see who it was driving the bike but all they could see was a thin body in black jeans and a black jacket, his head was blocked by other bodies and that he was lying low on the bike's seat. When the game ended the expected over exuberant music blared and words "High Score!" flashed, all the boys that had gathered around the game cheered and the mob closed in to pat the talented boy on the back. It was only when he straightened up that Roxas finally saw his face.

Flame red hair emerged from the crowd, it had been spiked as far upwards as it would allow and framed a handsome, smiling face with two small upturned tear tattoos. The face turned towards Roxas and he found two shocking green eyes staring back into his own. The older boy was tall and lean, his clothes hugged him in all the right places and he practically glowed with an aura of confidence. Roxas said the only thing that was in his head "Wow"

"Yeah! Wow! You said it Roxas!" yelled Hayner.

Roxas was jolted out of his stupor "W-What?"

"His score! It was amazing! I bet even Luxord has never scored that high on anything before!"

"Y-yeah," Roxas blushed "The score." He couldn't take his eyes of the redhead "Who is he?"

Hayner shrugged "I've no clue, oh hey!" Pence and Olette had joined them.

"What's all the fuss?" The girl asked, Hayner pointed at the game screen, which was still happily singing out about its new winner. Olette rolled her eyes "Boys"

Pence looked over to the boy who was being handed a victory smoothie by one of his friends "Oh, I've seen that guy before"

"You have? Who is he?" Roxas tried not to sound as eager as he felt

"I think his name's Axel, he keeps beating all the top scores on the games. Luxord doesn't usually let him in here, he must have slipped past him" It would seem that Luxord wasn't greeting all his favourite customers at the entrance; he was keeping all the players that could defeat his scores, out. "He goes to our school"

"Really? I've never seen him" Hayner was putting his coins into the machine to have a go himself.

"He stays round the back of the school, when he actually shows up, other than that I heard everyone knows him because he shows up to all the parties the seniors have" Pence said as Hayner threw him his jacket to hold.

He steadied himself on the bike "I'm sure I can beat that score" Fifteen tries and one empty wallet later they decided to go home.

When Roxas got home Sora was sitting on the sofa watching TV, snuggled up to Riku with a content look on his face. Upon hearing the door the couple turned to face him "Hi Roxas! How was your evening?" Sora grinned

Riku just said "Hey"

Roxas dumped his jacket on the nearby chair and sat down in it "Was cool. Some guy got an awesome score on Ducati World Series and Hayner spent the rest of the night trying to beat it."

Riku laughed, "I'm sure he was successful. Who was the guy with the score?" the silver haired boy knew everyone that was worth knowing and so a feat of arcade amazement interested him

Roxas remembered the striking boy with the green eyes and his mouth went dry "Erm, Axel or something. Face tattoos, red hair."

"Yeah sure, I know him. He's friends with Cloud, they both work in that bike shop on weekends"

Sora faced his boyfriend "He really had tattoos on his face?"

"Yeah" The two then struck up a conversation about tattoos and where it's cool to have them. Roxas left them to it and went up to bed.

He remembered to get undressed before falling into bed this time. As his head hit the pillow he found that he couldn't sleep. Flashes of crimson kept appearing behind his eyes. Then just as Roxas was about to fall asleep he saw his face again. The ivory, unblemished skin, the red wisps dancing about his cheekbones, dazzling eyes and that smile, one side quirking upwards towards his cheek; promising mischief. Roxas's eyes flew open. "What on earth am I thinking? Why can't I get this guy out of my head? Sure, he's good looking but he's just some random guy, I know nothing about him, he could be one of those gloriously pretty people who are rotten on the inside" He angrily turned himself over, tangling up in the duvet he tried to force all thoughts of the older boy out of his mind. Eventually Roxas fell asleep but his subconscious still got the better of him.

Roxas was familiar with his 'Dream World' his dreams where frequently in the same place. A psychologist would probably have something to say about that but Roxas had grown to take comfort in it. There were never any nasty surprises, just a good night's sleep after an unconscious adventure. Tonight, however, was slightly different. Off to the side of his usual village-esque dream world was a patch of woodland, Dream Roxas wandered over to it, intrigued. He entered into the woods and after a short time he had managed to get well and truly lost. Dream Roxas, obviously unaware that he was a figment of the imagination, thought, "How am I going to get home? Mom's waiting for me" Then, as always when something starts to go wrong in dreams or dramas, it started to rain. The rain turned heavy and Roxas could hear thunder in the distance, he started to run. He had no idea where he was going and ultimately the wet ground caused him to lose his footing and tumble into a ditch. It wasn't that deep but the rain made the walls of the ditch far to slippery to climb, Roxas was distraught, if the rain carried on he may drown. He tried to use sticks he found to climb up the side but to no avail, it was then, just when he was giving up hope that he heard a horse whinny. He looked up and saw a white stallion, the rider in a black cloak with silver around the neck, extended his ivory hand to Roxas. The boy took it, it felt warm against his cold skin and he was pulled up into strong arms. His blue eyes looked up into the face of the rider that was obscured by the cloak's hood "Thank you" He said. The rider moved to pull his hood down, the black material moved off his forehead and-

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

Roxas groaned and shut his alarm clock off. Still tangled in his duvet he mentally cursed himself "Stupid girly dreams" then he got up to get ready for school.

At lunch Roxas was sitting alone at his usual table, Pence and Olette had club activities and Hayner had to stay late to clean the classroom as punishment for falling asleep during a history lesson. Munching on his 'nutritious' school meal he idly let his eyes wander the room; it was then that another flash of crimson appeared in the corner of his eye. Roxas started and turned his head, sure enough, Axel was sauntering across the lunch hall, the blonde boy couldn't help but notice the badges that he had pinned to the back of his jeans. As if Axel wanted everyone to look at his rear. "Why wouldn't he? It's nice" thought Roxas, still unable to remove his gaze from the decorated behind "Wait, What?" he felt himself blush horrifically. Unfortunately for Roxas, Hayner chose that moment to finish his class duties and join him. He did the only thing he could think of and shoved a large spoonful of mashed potato into his mouth. As Roxas thought, it was scolding hot and he flailed around as his tongue burned, turning his face even redder than it was previously and successfully covering his blush.

Hayner sat down next to Roxas as he finally swallowed the molten potato "Hey, sorry I'm late" he grinned.

"No worries," Roxas gasped, he then took a drink from his milkshake "you'd better go and get some food whilst there's still some left"

"Oh yeah, thanks" with that Hayner ran off to join the line to the lunch lady's window. Roxas found himself searching for Axel in the crowded room. He was confused as to why he was so willing to seek out the handsome boy but his body seemed to be doing whatever it wanted and Roxas didn't complain. Axel had invited himself onto Cloud and Leon's table; the two seniors moved up to let him in. Their friend Yuffie was ecstatically acting out some form of elaborate tale and whilst Cloud looked disinterested, Axel was listening intently. His focus was completely on the girl whereas Roxas's focus was completely on Axel. He couldn't stop staring at him, how his slender arm lifted his drink to his lips, all the time his emerald eyes never leaving Yuffie as she told her story. Roxas was jolted out of his daze by Hayner's tray hitting the table "Hey, what'cha staring at?"

"Huh? Oh, nothing. Just spaced out" What on earth had he been thinking?

Roxas was mentally scolding himself as Seifer strode over angrily "what do you think you're doing?"

"What?" Roxas looked at the angry boy's face, bewildered

"What are you doing just sitting there staring at Leon?"

"I wasn't. I-" What would he tell Seifer exactly? That he wasn't staring at Leon but Axel instead? "I-"

"Oh shut up Stalker, do you want to get beat up by Cloud again?" Hayner sneered. Seifer's eyes widened and he turned pink. He mumbled something about getting Hayner back and rushed back to his table.

Hayner stuffed himself with his chocolate brownie "What was all that about?"

Roxas could feel a blush coming on again but Hayner jumped in before he could answer "I mean, going all crazy on you just because he thought you were looking at Leon. You'd spaced out, like you knew where you were looking and like it's his problem who looks at Leon. Freak" Roxas was thankful his best friend wasn't the brightest crayon in the box and didn't think that Roxas could have been ogling someone else.

When they finished their lunch and stacked their trays Roxas and Hayner walked around the school grounds for a while, not long later, Olette and Pence joined them. The group killed time by talking about random things like TV, siblings and games. The problem about having such a small school was that it didn't take very long to walk around it and it also meant that no matter how hard you tried; you were going to run into people along the way. On their third trip around the grounds they came across Cloud fiddling with his motorbike. "Hey Cloud," said Hayner, "Where's Leon?"

Cloud didn't look up from his bike chasse "Seeing a teacher about an essay"

It was then that an engine revving was heard and another bike sped into view, skidding to a halt near the group "Hey Cloud! You fixed her up great!" the helmeted rider yelled, readjusting the silver pendent around his black leather jacket.

"I know that voice" Roxas thought

"You barely did anything to her either" The rider dismounted, Roxas could see jeans with badges on the rear pocket, the helmet was removed and sure enough, it was Axel that had been straddling the bike. Roxas looked at the machine, across the body where the words 'White Stallion' with a rearing white horse emblazoned on the side.

"Oh you have _got_ to be shitting me"

As usual classes were uneventful. Although Roxas couldn't stop thinking about his dream nor the disturbing parallels that occurred through the day, which meant he had been quite distracted. So much so that when he started to walk home after school he didn't even notice that his brother had appeared until Sora practically jumped on him. "Wow, you sure were spaced then"

Roxas grumbled something about a long day

Sora fell instep with him "Hey! Did you hear about Seifer?" Roxas nodded and his brother laughed, "Riku thought it was the funniest thing! He was pretending to stalk Leon in the lunch line, it was brilliant!"

"Riku, Riku, Riku. Is that all he thinks about now?" Roxas thought "And I bet Cloud didn't think it was that funny" Roxas's mind had a horrible habit of making him think things by association because he thought of Leon, he thought of Cloud and thus he thought of motorbikes which brought him back to Axel. Upon thinking of Axel, Roxas blushed remembering his dream and how Axel's leather jacket clung to his chest and shoulders. "Come to think of it he likes clingy clothes"

"What's that Roxas?"

"Huh?" Sora was looking at him quizzically

"You said something about clingy clothes"

"I did?" He was definitely red now. Roxas tried to save face by laughing it off, running his hand through his hair "Sorry, asleep on my feet!"

They arrived home and Roxas went to the bathroom to wash his burning face. "Why do I keep thinking these things?" He asked his mirror self. He figured if his reflection could move of it's own accord then it would just shrug at him, clueless. He walked back down to the kitchen where Sora was raiding the freezer. Roxas was pleasantly surprised with a sea-salt ice cream "Oh, thanks"

"So," Sora lent back on the kitchen counter "What it is?"

Roxas had been devouring his ice cream and looked up "What's what?"

"Something's been bugging you"

"What makes you say that?"

Sora grinned, "It's a twin thing" Roxas rolled his eyes. It was only ever his brother that got the 'twin thing' and never himself. Not that he ever really needed it since Sora wore his heart on his sleeve and happily showed it to anyone he came across.

Roxas sighed and staring at his starting-to-melt-ice-cream "Can I ask you something? And I don't want you to read anything into it ok?"

Sora seemed to realise that Roxas was being serious and sat himself down on the chair by the table "Sure"

He couldn't quite believe that he was going to ask his brother this. He didn't want to admit it, but all the signs were there. He needed to make sure "How did you know that you liked Riku?"

Sora immediately perked up "You're taking an interest in my relationship? That's great!"

"Sora, I-"

"I have to tell Riku! You actually see us as a couple now!"

"Sora"

"I'm so happy!"

"Sora, you're an idiot" Roxas turned and left the kitchen, grumpily stomping up the stairs to his room and slamming the door.

A little while later there was a knock and Sora crept around the doorframe "Roxas?" Roxas was facedown on his bed but managed a muffled 'what?' His twin sat himself on the edge of the bed "Sorry I got so excited earlier."

This caused Roxas to roll over "It's ok"

"So you want to know how I knew I liked Riku?"

"Yes please."

"You'll tell me why when you're ready wont you?" Although Sora was a bit of a dork most of the time, Roxas had to applaud him on being a good brother. He knew when something important was going on and knew exactly how to handle Roxas in the situation, never pushing him to tell him anything.

"Sure I will"

Sora smiled as he remembered, "Whenever I saw Riku I felt all warm, but not uncomfortable warm, kinda like when it's been raining and cold and you sit on the radiator, that kind of nice warm. My head went all light and my vision was like I was dreaming. Then I could hear my heartbeat. De Dum, De Dum, De Dum. That's when I knew I was in love"

Roxas stared at his twin with slight wonder "That… was the cheesiest thing I have ever heard" Sora squeaked and hit him with a pillow. Roxas laughed and found another to counterattack. The pillow fight went on for so long that Riku had been ringing the doorbell for ten minutes before either of the boys noticed and let him inside.

Roxas woke up the next day in a far better mood, this good mood stayed with him when he, Hayner and Pence met up for their Saturday ritual of being dragged to go shopping with Olette. Since she was the only girl in the group and she spent nearly all her free time with the boys they allowed her two or three hours on a Saturday to be as girly as she wanted. Meaning their role as big strong men was to carry the shopping bags. They were in their fifth store of the day and each boy already had a shopping bag each. Olette had not long had a birthday and so, unfortunately for the boys, this meant she had a lot of money to spend. "It's going to be a heavy day" Hayner groaned

"Oh! Look at this Hello Kitty phone charm! It's so cute! Isn't it cute?"

"Yeah" the three mumbled even though they weren't remotely interested in the object.

As Olette skipped up to the cashier they suddenly heard a voice "Hi Pence"

Leon walked over to the trio, a carrier bag from the store in his hand "Hi Leon" Pence chirped, "What are you doing in here?" The shop was filled with pink things with sparkles and fluff. Roxas felt slightly nauseous just standing there, it wasn't exactly somewhere you'd expect Leon to be. "Oh, it's for Yuffie She passed a new level of Ninjitsu and it's my job to go and buy the present"

"Ooh! What did you get her?" Olette had just returned clutching the same type of bag as the senior. Leon was showing the young girl the pink flowery scarf as Hayner turned to Pence "How do you know Leon?"

"I take a Math class with the year above. Leon tutors me when I need some help"

Said brunette was shuffling his present back into his bag "Oh, I'm meeting Cloud and the others from something to eat. Do you want to come?"

Pence looked shocked "Me?"

"All of you"

Hayner chuckled, "Seifer's not going to be following you is he?"

Leon's eyes narrowed "I hope not"

Roxas felt the tension and tried to break it "So! Where are we eating then!" he said shoving Hayner out of the door in front of him.

As they were walking with Leon, Roxas noticed that the older boy checked his surroundings every now and again. He was about to mention something to Hayner when they stopped. They were outside a small store that sold fried chicken, Cloud walked over to Leon, took the shopping bag from him and stealthily tucked it away in his rucksack, Roxas could see why as Yuffie was waving madly at them from the seating area, next to her was a boy with long black hair wearing a long red coat who surprisingly didn't look hot, despite the weather. Leon gently pushed Roxas and Hayner's shoulders "Come on, I'll introduce you to everyone. This is Yuffie Kisaragi"

Although Roxas already knew who most of the seniors were he'd never actually met any of them other than Cloud and Leon. "Hi Pence!" Yuffie had a very sing-song voice and shook all their hands enthusiastically "Glad to see you're doin' ok in math! We haven't seen you in our little tutor group in ages! Have we Vince?" She elbowed the guy next to her but only received a "Ngh" and a nod in reply.

Leon rolled his eyes "That's Vincent Valentine. Don't worry, he doesn't talk that much, not even to us" The near mute gave another nod. "And this is Axel" Roxas felt his heart falter as the Redhead walked out from inside the store; placing the drinks he was carrying on the table. He smiled as he saw the younger group and heard himself introduced. Roxas found himself staring at his perfectly white teeth. Axel wiped his hands on his ever-tight jean and walked forward, extending it to Roxas "Hey, I'm Axel"

As Axel stood in front of him, those shockingly green eyes roaming all over him. Roxas felt all warm and light headed. His thoughts stopped for a second "Warm? Light headed?" He could see Axel's face, but the edges were blurred, like Roxas was dreaming. Then Roxas heard what he feared. De Dum, De Dum, De Dum.

_Shit_

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Thank you for reading! Reviews are love! I shall continue this soon hopefully as I have many more ideas and Darkenglishrose will poke me and make me update to make her and you happy.

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	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2. This is quite quick for me... I'm really happy with how this story is working out. I haven't written for so long and then to work on this story is lovely. This is what I get when Shini and Ketsi pester me for updates.

The one where Roxas does the chasing: Chapter Two

Roxas was lying in his favourite comfort position on his bed; face down with a pillow over the back of his head. He groaned and pulled the pillow down tighter; he felt like an utter moron and had acted as such. When Axel had offered him his hand Roxas had shook it, he wasn't sure for how long, but he knew that he had nervously giggled throughout. His mouth was so dry that he nearly downed his drinks in one go, this of course meant at least three trips to the bathroom in the two hours they were at the food stand. All he wanted to do was bang his head on the table with shame, preferably enough times to render himself unconscious. It didn't help that Axel had sat at a table with Roxas and his group. The older boy talked with them all with a smile on his face. Axel, annoyingly, owned the type of face that when a smile graced it, he looked almost godly. So, between gulping his drink and running to relieve himself, Roxas couldn't keep his eyes off the boy.

After the party had disintegrated Roxas made his excuses to his friends to head home. Before leaving to go to work with Cloud, Axel turned and waved to the younger group "Hey! I'll see you guys again!" Roxas barely waved back as it was taking all his muscle power to keep his knees from buckling. He recovered his composure during the walk home and as the fog lifted from his head it was replaced with sheer shame over is girly behaviour. He got through his front door, ignored Sora's welcome and retreated to the safety of his room.

A little while later there was a knock on the door. It was merely a formality as Sora came in anyway no matter what Roxas answered. He felt the bed sink as his twin sat down by his side, a hand stroked his back and he heard his brother's voice, soft and concerned "You saw them didn't you? The person you like?"

"Yeah" The pillow replied

Sora tugged at the pillow over Roxas' head "Come on, turn around"

The blonde rolled over so the pillow was now under him, leaving enough space for Sora to settle down next to him, both boys lay back staring at the ceiling "How did you know?" Roxas asked

"You came in blushing, looking depressed and immediately holed yourself up in your room. I know I'm not the brightest crayon in the box Roxas but it didn't take much brainpower to figure it out. I've been there remember"

"Oh please, Riku jumped you the first chance he got, yeah he's in the same social circle as Axel but the situations aren't the same, Sora"

"…It's Axel?"

Roxas mentally hit himself. He was going to tell Sora all about it eventually but he had wanted to sort it all out in his head first. Sora only needed to look at Roxas' face to get his answer.

"Look, Axel's a nice guy. Maybe you just need to talk to him"

Roxas sat up and hugged his knees "It's not that easy Sora! You knew Riku was… that he liked… you know-"

"Boys"

"…yeah… and even if he does… I was such a moron today. I really acted like some swooning school girl, he probably thinks I'm stupid or socially inept"

Sora sat up and put an arm around his brother "I'm sure it wasn't all that bad"

"Do you remember what Kairi and Olette were like when that soap star guy came to town?"

"Yeah but what does… Oh… ok maybe that's a little bad" Sora hugged him tightly "But don't worry! You probably just acted like a dork because you've only just figured out you liked him. He was weird to be around with those feelings popping up all over the place. You'll be a lot better next time you see him, just talk a little and build things up hm?"

Roxas looked at his twin "You amaze me, you act like a clueless kid most of the time and then you'll randomly sound like an intelligent adult"

Sora grinned "Huh?"

Roxas smiled back "Never mind. Come on, let's get an ice cream" They got up and headed down stairs, part way down Sora piped up

"Erm... Roxas, about the ice creams"

"If you and Riku have eaten all my ice creams I'll kill you"

Miraculously Sora lived through the rest of the weekend and made it to school with Roxas on Monday.

Upon arriving the two boys separated as they usually did. Riku was talking with Axel and Cloud as Sora joined him, Roxas hoped to everything holy that Sora didn't say anything to Axel that could potentially mortify him forever. After the morning ritual of finding his friends, listening to Hayner tell them of his recent, slightly elaborated verbal victory over Seifer, Roxas headed into his classroom. The past few days he had be plagued with daydreams and this morning was no different. Roxas had missed what was going on in most of his classes due to spacing out, his Axel related thoughts just wouldn't leave him be. Luckily he was graced with a free period and he went to lay down on the grass outside to think in peace. Of course, with Roxas' luck it wasn't long before someone who was far too happy rudely interrupted him.

"Hey Roxas!"

"Hey Hayner" Hayner joined him on the grass, lying down with his hands behind his head. "Where are Pence and Olette?"

"Math class. I can't believe they give up their free time to do even more math than we already have to. They're crazy"

Roxas chuckled and closed his eyes "Yeah... yeah they are"

"So," Hayner turned to face him with a grin on his face "I hear you have a little crush?"

Roxas' eyes flew open and he sat up "What?"

_I'm going to kill Sora_

"Yeah well, you've been a bit spacey so I talked to Sora. Come on, who is she? You can tell me!"

She? … Sora wasn't as dead as he previously had been but he'd definitely be comatose.

"It's nothing Hayner, don't worry about it" He lay back down as his friend propped himself up on one elbow

"Aaaaaw! Roxas! You can tell me! I'm your best friend come on! Oh, oh is it that new English teacher? She's pretty hot." He gasped, "I know! It's that senior transfer student isn't it? Isn't it?"

Roxas rolled his eyes "Yeah sure, why not"

Hayner laughed, "I knew it! I know you so well Roxas! See? This is why I'm your best friend"

He couldn't help but smile "Sure is Hay."

After some more sessions of not paying attention in class the school day ended. Roxas met Sora outside and was about to unleash his rage upon him when his brother nudged him and nodded over to the other side of the school entrance. Axel was just saying goodbye to his friends and left to go around the back of the school to get his motorbike "Go for it" Sora whispered to him. Roxas just stood dumbfounded "Go on Roxas, it's the only night of the week he doesn't go straight to work with Cloud. You don't get many chances to speak to Axel alone so go for it!"

"...How do you know so much about Axel?"

Sora raised an eyebrow at his twin "I spend the entire day with Riku and his friends. You don't think I pay attention when they talk to each other?" He then shoved Roxas in Axel's direction "Now stop complaining and just go already!" He shook his head as Roxas slowly walked behind the school building.

When he turned the corner the blonde could see Axel bent over his bike, again in very tight jeans, unlocking his chassis from the metal fence. Roxas was sure he wore those jeans on purpose, just to torment him. Axel spotted him and straightened up "Oh hey! You're… Roxas right? Sora's brother?"

He immediately blushed at Axel remembering his name "Y-yeah. I'm his twin"

"Awesome, I've always thought twins were cool. Can you do that twin thing?"

"S-sometimes… yeah" Roxas was getting nervous, those startling green eyes were looking directly at him, expecting him to say something of substance "But, eh, Sora gets it a whole lot more than I do"

Axel smiled and Roxas' heart jumped in his throat… did his teeth actually just sparkle? "So, what's up?"

"Oh!" He remembered that he had walked over to Axel. Who is obviously going to think Roxas wants him for something. "I, er, just wanted to talk to you"

The redhead sat down sideways on his bike seat "Sure thing kid, about what"

Roxas was positive he was pink, his hands were sweaty and his mouth was dry. He started to wonder if it was all the moisture from your mouth running down to your hands that caused it to be that way, but then he forced himself back on track "I was w-wondering if, erm, if I could talk to you about-" he started to look at his feet.

When he looked up Axel was looking at him with a delicate eyebrow quirked upwards and a smirk on his face. Like he'd just figured something out. The older boy stood up and shrugged "It wouldn't be a good week without at least one" He walked over to Roxas and bent down so their faces were very close.

Roxas was speechless but managed a small "Huh?" Axel's thumb and finger were holding his chin, his nose was nearly touching his and Roxas was starting to lose himself in those eyes. Then he spoke, in that deep sultry voice of his "You're cute kid. But I don't do blondes" Axel then gave him a quick kiss on the forehead and headed back to his motorbike. Roxas blushed and looked to the floor as he drove past him.

Sora was definitely in for it tonight.

"Roxas! Roxas let me in! It's past midnight! Come on!" Sora was banging on their front door, his shirt wet through and his hair plastered to his head "Roxas! It's raining! PLEASE!" Roxas was leaning on the door with his arms folded. Sora more often than not forgot his keys. He usually left the door open for him but tonight he wasn't feeling so generous. He figured ten minutes was long enough and opened the door. Sora ran in dripping wet "What did you do that for!"

"He doesn't do blondes." said Roxas as he walked stoically into the living room.

Sora stopped mid-rant, "Oh. Oh, Roxas I'm sorry"

"What's there to be sorry about? It was nothing. It wasn't important" He sat down on the sofa and Sora sat next to him.

The brunette lend his head on Roxas' shoulder "It's ok you know. If you're upset about it"

"I'm not"

"Yes you are. You do the exact same thing Riku does. When you're upset about something you act all macho like you don't care when all you really want to do is cry" He didn't like being compared to Riku but Roxas had to admit his brother had a point.

He sighed, "He said I was cute, but he doesn't do blondes"

Sora smiled "At least he said you were cute. That means there could be a possibility of-"

"Sora, he's the type of guy who'll say that just to make me feel better about it"

"No he isn't. I've seen Axel reject people, sometimes it's just plain cruel. He may as well have set fire to them. He's usually not very nice to people who are interested in him that way. Maybe he's playing hard to get?"

Roxas looked sceptical "Does that seriously ever happen?"

Sora shrugged "You never know, Axel has a lot people asking him out all the time, both girls and boys. Maybe he makes the ones he's interested in work a little harder for it"

"So I have to chase him?"

"Wouldn't hurt to give it a try"

"Thanks Sora. I feel a bit better. Now get off me you're all wet!" Sora was promptly thrown off the sofa and onto the floor.

The two boys laughed and talked for a while longer and then they both went to bed. Their school was having a holiday the next day in celebration of the founder's birthday so they had the day off. Roxas knew exactly what he was going to do. He smiled as he touched his forehead where Axel had kissed him "Maybe he's worth chasing after all"

The next morning Roxas' phone rang; it was Hayner who was sounding very sleepy for ten thirty in the morning. The first thing Roxas heard was a yawn then "Hey Roxas. Do you want to do something today? Like, arcade or something?"

Roxas was already drinking his after-breakfast coffee "Sorry Hayner, I've got some important stuff to do today"

"Aw really? Damn, my Dad's been trying to get me to help clean the garage. I was going to tell him you needed me for a homework session or something." He sighed, "Ok, I'll try Pence… but he may actually get me to do my homework"

Roxas laughed "Sorry. Speak to you soon" After he finished his coffee Roxas went and got the bus into the town. It was quite busy with mothers and prams and children who were also off school going out with their friends. Roxas made his way through the crowds to the drug store. He bought what he needed and headed back home.

He rushed up to the bathroom; he couldn't wait to try it out. He read the instructions on the side of the box and gave it a go. A little while later a yell from the bathroom was heard "Sora!"

Sora ran in frantically, thinking Roxas had fallen in the shower and broken a leg or something. "What? What's wrong?" Then he saw the bottles and box on the floor and the funny colour the sink had decided to change to. Roxas was sitting on the edge of the bath with a towel over his head.

A tiny voice from under the towel spoke, "Sora, it went really wrong"

Sora lifted the towel up so he could see Roxas' face. He had to try very hard not to laugh. "Oh dear… it's a bit more orange than you were expecting wasn't it? I think we're going to have to get Riku to help with this."

One phone call later and Riku was standing with them in the bathroom. "Let me have a look" Roxas squeaked and pulled the towel tighter on his head "Roxas, if you want me to help I have to look at it. I wont laugh I promise" Roxas pulled the towel off his head. His usually gloriously blonde spikes were a hideously strange shade of orange. Riku's eye twitched, he picked up the box the hair dye was bought in "You really shouldn't have used this type of dye on your hair Roxas. It's not good for blondes at all. As you can see, the colour changes from the nice red on the box to… well, that"

"What can I do about it? Can you fix it Riku?"

Riku pulled his hand through Roxas' hair and thought for a moment "The only thing I can do is dye it again. But I think that will damage your hair too much. You'll have to go to a salon and have it treated first, then re-dyed. I know a good one not too far from here." Roxas wasn't sure what he was more annoyed about, the fact he had to ask Riku for help or that he had to go outside with his new hair.

Luckily Sora gave him a hat to wear. As he was walking down to the salon Roxas couldn't help but think if this would actually work. Just because Axel has said he didn't like blondes he'd tried to dye his hair. He doubted that something so simple would turn Axel's head but he figured it was a starting point. He found the salon; the front of the shop was all black, with a silver writing across the window. Roxas noted that the sign was missing an apostrophe because he was ever so slightly anal about grammar. He entered the shop, where the door happily chimed and a tall man with some form of mullet welcomed him.

"Hi! Welcome to Nobodies Perfect. I'm Demyx the co-owner!"

"Co-owner?"

"Yeah, see Zexion over there?" The tall blonde pointed over to a young handsome man with purple hair that fell lightly over one side of his face "He's my partner"

Zexion looked over at Demyx "Business partner Demyx"

"What? Oh! Oh yeah. Business partner" Demyx grinned and Zexion shook his head in a bemused way, like this was something that Demyx was corrected on often. The violet haired co-owner left his reception desk and walked over to Roxas "What can we do for you today?"

Roxas looked sheepish and removed his hat, showing them his attempt at changing his hair colour. Demyx's hands flew up to his mouth "Oh dear!"

Zexion raised an eyebrow "Tried to dye your extremely fair hair without professional help? Honestly, what people do these days" He walked back to his desk and waved a hand at Demyx "Demy, fix him"

Roxas sat down in the styling chair and Demyx immediately started to run his hands through his hair, just like Riku had done. "This certainly needs treating. You didn't happen to bring the dye with you did you? Sorry, what's your name?"

Roxas bent down and pulled the box out of his bag, handing it to his new stylist he said "It's Roxas"

Demyx smiled and looked at the box "Well hi Roxas! Oh, you're in luck, it isn't a permanent dye. It'll wear off in a few weeks." He put the box down and started to play with younger boy's hair again "What I'll do it treat it so your hair wont be damaged and then I'll put another semi-permanent die over it to cover the colour. Then after a few weeks and some good washing you'll have your natural hair back in all its little glory. Ok?"

"Yeah sure, that sounds fine" Demyx seemed to be very excited about what he does. Roxas just hoped he was good at his job. After his hair had been treated Roxas was shown a large range of dyes. Zexion had even come over from reading his large book to see about the colour. "What about this one?" Roxas pointed to the red he was trying to get in the first place.

Zexion shook his head "I'll tell you now, red will not look good with your face. The complexion isn't strong enough. I'm afraid science defies you. May I suggest something?" He picked up a bottle of black. "This is black but it shines blue in the light. It will go well with your eyes and your skin and you'll only have it for a few weeks anyway so you may as well be drastic" Zexion knew what he was talking about so Roxas just nodded.

As the dye was working Roxas sat and talked to Demyx whilst watching Zexion work on another customer, his hands were working the scissors at an amazing speed but each cut was precise. "Hey, I just noticed something," He turned back to Demyx "You guys have matching tattoos"

Demyx grinned "Yeah we do" He held up his left ring finger on which was written the number '9' in an ornate font. From where he was sitting Roxas could see that Zexion had the same tattoo in the same place except his was the number '6'

"They're really nice" Tattoos started his thoughts on Axel again

Demyx took a sip from his water bottle he kept at his station "So why did you try dying your hair like that?"

Roxas blushed "I'm trying to impress someone"

The blonde smiled "Aw! I did so much to try and impress Zexy it was silly" he laughed

"Are you two-?" Roxas was asking but Zexion interrupted him

"Demyx! Can you go sort the till please?"

"'Kay!"

Half an hour later Roxas was standing at Zexion's reception desk about to pay for his treatment "Thanks guys. I really appreciated it" he said handing over his money.

"I really hope we get to see you again Roxas! I'm sure you'll impress that special person!" Demyx chirped

Zexion simply smiled and said "Good luck"

Roxas left the shop far happier than he was when he entered. Sora's hat was stuffed in his bag and his now black hair was out on show, when the light hit it a certain way the sides of his spikes would shine a deep blue. It was a nice effect and he knew Sora would be surprised when he saw him. He just hoped that Axel would like it too.

Riku was still there when Roxas got home. "Nice hair" He smiled

"Oh wow Roxas that looks so cool. Oh my god it changes colour!" was Sora's reaction.

The next day when heading into school Roxas was more hopeful about his situation than he ever had been. His friends were happy over his new look after they got over the initial shock of the change. Hayner slapped him on the back "I had to clean the garage just so you could go get your hair done! Honestly Roxas!"

"I told you Hayner, you could have come and done some homework with me"

"Pence! I was avoiding work, why would I avoid it with even more work?"

Classes as per usual were uneventful, at lunch however Roxas heard his name being called just as he emerged out of the queue with his food. He turned and it was Sora, near the back of the line. Walking back down the line he past Axel and Cloud, Cloud was still talking to him but Axel had stopped and stared. Roxas noticed this from the corner of his eye and smiled "Hey Sora"

"Hi Roxas!" Sora laughed embarrassed and scratched the back of his head "Could I borrow some Munny please? I left mine at home and Riku went to talk to Leon about something"

"Yeah, of course" Roxas handed his tray to his brother and took out his own munny, took his tray back and gave some to Sora. He headed over to his table, catching Axel's face again, he hadn't looked away from the now black haired Roxas and his mouth hung open slightly. Roxas felt very pleased with himself, he'd at least been able to gain Axel's attention. He sat down at their table, facing Cloud's. After a short time both tables were full of the usual people, happily talking away. However, Roxas could see Axel talking intently with Cloud. He seemed to be explaining something and tugged on Cloud's hair as he did so. Roxas was sure he saw one of Axel's thumbs jab in his direction but he couldn't quite see over Olette's bag, which she kept on the tabletop. Roxas had finished his food and was just sucking the last of his drink through his straw when he saw Cloud push Axel out of his seat to stand him up. As Axel protested the blonde obviously made a good retort as the redhead looked defeated. Then Yuffie joined in, with an almighty shove in the back Axel was half thrown half skidded in Roxas' direction.

It was the surprised yelp Axel had let out that brought him to Hayner's attention "Hey, is that Axel coming over here?"

Roxas' heart sped up "Yeah" he was nervous but excited at the same time. Sora was right, there must have been something else behind his rejection. Otherwise why would Axel be coming to talk to him now? If he weren't interested would he care if Roxas changed his hair?

The older boy reached the table and cleared his throat "Hey kid, I need ya a minute" He was good a keeping his cool, but his hand was fiddling with a badge on the side of his jeans.

Roxas raised an eyebrow "Sure, but don't call me kid." He excused himself from the table and walked with Axel out into the hall.

Once they were alone Roxas found Axel facing him, his hands in his pockets "So," Axel said, "You changed your hair"

He couldn't help but smile "Yeah I did. Blonde got a bit boring"

"Yeah. Yeah, I can imagine"

Roxas looked up into Axel's face, into his eyes "Do you like it?"

Axel's cool front faltered, Roxas saw his green eyes trail all over him, not just his hair "Yeah, it's pretty cool"

"Thanks." Roxas wondered where the conversation was going "Did- did you want me for something?"

"er-" Roxas realised that Axel had ended up in the same position that he was the last time they spoke. Wanting to speak but with nothing to say. But the cogs in Axel's mind work quickly, again he walked up to Roxas and placed a hand on the top of his head, tilting it up to his own. He smiled that trademark Axel smile "I just wanted to get the number of your stylist. But it can wait" He tweaked Roxas' nose and walked back through the doors into the lunch hall "see ya, kid".

Roxas leant back against a locker, held his hand up to his chest in a futile attempt to calm his racing heartbeat. He sighed contently; it had gone far better than the first time. He was happy with his progress, even though it was slow. Axel was interested and that made him certainly worth chasing.

* * *

Thank you for reading! There was a looot of dialogue in this chapter so that meant a looot of paragraphs.. heh heh. Thank you all for you reviews, keep 'em coming! They make me happy and then I update


	3. Chapter 3

Third chapter! Bit of a change as I felt I couldn't do anymore with Roxas until I set down a bit of a premise plus I wanted to write a bit of the other stories that are going on. So here's some Cloud for you!

Warnings: Yaoi, as usual, language and a bit of smut.

The one where Roxas does the chasing

Cloud silently hated the sun as it stirred him from his sleep by playing on his face. He groaned and rolled over to find the bed empty. He hated it when he did that. Sitting up he rubbed his eyes and looked at the clock "Bastard turned off my alarm!" The blonde swung his legs over the bed and walked out into the kitchen in his boxers.

Chugging down some orange juice, which to him equalled breakfast; he showered and dressed for work. He'd taken an extra shift at the bike shop since it was a holiday from school but he'd wanted to go ride his bike by the cliffs before he started. He cursed his partner for thinking he preferred sleep to riding his bike.

He got to work and Axel was already there, elbow-deep in their scrap parts bin. Cloud kicked him up the rear so he dove in headfirst "What the fuck was that for!" The bin squeaked.

He grinned "What'cha looking for?" They were allowed to take parts from the scrap bin to modify their own bikes. If they could fix it, they could have it.

Axel used a rag to wipe the oil from his face, he only succeeded in streaking it down his neck "I'm making her pretty"

The blonde looked over at Axel's bike, a few parts had been removed and laid out on the floor of the garage. There were a few scratches on the white stallion that decorated the side "She looks pretty to me"

The redhead returned to his work "I'm just replacing a few parts and giving her a new paintjob. This one's getting a bit beat up"

Cloud laughed "You shouldn't ride like a madman then"

"Oh, and you're the king of road safety I see"

Cloud noticed the array of red and orange paint tins on one side of Axel's bike "You painting yourself on the side there?"

Axel laughed, "No, I'm putting some flames down her sides-"

A blonde eyebrow tweaked "That's original"

Cloud was ignored and Axel was now wildly gesturing with his arms "-and then I can ride her off into the sunset in a flurry of dancing flames!"

"A flurry of…." Cloud shook his head and smiled "Sure, whatever kid" An oily rag was thrown in his face.

"Don't call me kid! You're only a year older than me Blondie"

The now oily blonde wheeled his own bike into the back of the shop "Oh I'm sure you'll inflict it on someone else at some point so I'm going to have my fun while I can"

After fixing a few bikes and watching Axel laugh, swear and yell at his own, Cloud sat down for a break on their rather disgruntled, messy sofa. He looked over at the clock, which was hanging next to the thing every garage must have; the half naked woman straddling tires/cars calendar. Not that any of them cared for that sort of thing. The clock and his stomach reminded him it was past lunch. It was about this time every day that Cloud wished he either ate a proper breakfast or brought lunch with him. Axel always called this section of the afternoon 'Grumpy Cloud Time' and had learnt to be absorbed in his work instead of bothering the older boy. Today however he heard a call from outside "Hey Blondie! Someone to see you!"

Cloud was about to make the effort to move when he saw the silhouette of someone familiar standing in the sunlight coming through the door. The man stepped in and Cloud smiled "What would I do without you?"

"You'd starve, that's what" chuckled Leon as he handed Cloud the lunchbox.

It didn't take long for Cloud to get stuck into the homemade sandwiches as Leon sat next to him "Where'd you go this morning?"

The brunette leant back against the couch "I went to go sort something out"

Cloud stopped devouring his lunch for a second "That creepy beanie kid?"

"Yeah, I-"

"I told you not to go near him!" The lunchbox was forgotten "He STALKED you Leon, He-" Leon held a finger up to Cloud's lips and shushed him. Cloud looked half annoyed half upset, that one little finger couldn't really do anything to make him quiet but he obeyed.

"I went to tell him once and for all, to leave us alone, forget about it all and get on with his life" He leant over and kissed Cloud on the head. Now the blonde felt silly about his outburst "You ok, Cloud?"

"Yeah, I'm fine" He looked up into Leon's face and smiled. Then he poked him in the chest "Just don't turn off my alarm when I wanna ride my bike ok!"

Leon laughed, "Ok, I'll be more careful next time I think you need more sleep" He leant in and kissed him. Cloud threw his arms around his neck and fell backwards onto the cushions, bringing Leon with him.

Axel walked in to try and get a tool he needed; he saw the couple on the couch and silently swivelled on one booted heel and walked right back out again.

A little while later Cloud emerged from the garage a whole lot more cheerful than he had been previously. Axel looked up from his tinkering in an engine to see Leon kiss Cloud goodbye and head off down the street "Looks like Grumpy Cloud time turned into After Glow Cloud time"

"Huh?"

"Nothing." He then thought for a minute "You know, it amuses me that you two manage to keep your reputation in school even though you're the gayest people I've ever met"

Cloud waved his hand in Axel's direction, in mock gayness "Oh please, like you're not a raging homo"

Axel raised a finger and opened his mouth as if he were going to say something, then decided not to and returned to his engine.

Later that day Cloud had just finished up his last job when he wandered over to see how Axel had painted his bike. He'd touched up the paintwork on the stallion and had been adding flames to its mane. Cloud bent down and spoke by Axel's ear "That reminds me of one of those Pokemon things"

If Axel had been in a manga at that moment he would have simply had 'dot dot dot' over his head "Shut up Cloud"

Cloud laughed and gave him a pat on the head "I'm heading home. I'll see you in school tomorrow" he locked up his tools and wheeled his bike back out to the courtyard "Don't stay there all night"

"'Kay" Axel continued painting "See ya tomorrow" and with that Cloud revved his bike and sped off down the street.

Cloud returned home and sat down with a sigh on his bed. He heard the shower running in the bathroom and thought on invading it himself. He lay back on the bed and remembered what Leon had told him earlier. He'd been to see Seifer. Cloud had an immense dislike for the boy, especially when he found him snooping around their home.

It was a week or two ago and Cloud and Leon had been out with their friends. Axel had come back with them to pick up a movie Cloud had borrowed from him. Leon had gone to take a shower while Cloud and Axel sifted through the vast DVD collection searching for the correct one. Eventually they found it "Right then," Axel said, standing up "I'll leave you two to it then" he winked at Cloud, who rolled his eyes.

"I'll walk you out to your bike" Parking in town wasn't great so Axel always left his motorbike at Leon and Cloud's. The two walked around the side of the house to more secluded area where the bikes were kept.

The thing about Leon's house was that it wasn't really a house. It looked like one, but Cloud and Leon only owned the bottom floor, the top was another apartment that was someone else's. Because of this, obviously, their bedroom and bathroom were also on the ground floor, but at the back of the house. Cloud and Axel rounded the corner and Cloud stopped dead in his tracks. Axel wondered why and turned to speak to Cloud, who was beginning to shake, the blonde had balled his fists, his teeth were clenched and a small growl was emitting from deep in his throat. Axel, quite frankly, was petrified. He looked over to what Cloud was so angrily staring at and saw someone crouching by their bathroom window. Leon got claustrophobic in the shower and so opened the window at the bottom ever so slightly, which wasn't usually a problem. Tonight, however, he had a Peeping Tom. Axel opened his mouth to yell but Cloud had already pounced.

He couldn't believe how angry he was. He was shaking, every fibre of his being reverberated with pure hatred. He didn't know who that was but they certainly weren't going to survive the night. He moved quickly, he was over to the person in less than a second and tackled them to the floor. He didn't look at them, he just pinned them underneath him, started punching and didn't let up. He started to feel blood on his knuckles; whether it was the pervert's or his he didn't know he just knew he was too angry to do anything but beat the crap out of this guy.

"Fuck Cloud stop!!" He suddenly felt Axel's arms grab him around the chest and pull him off "It's that kid!"

Cloud looked down, breathing heavily. The kid had scrambled a few feet away from him and was rubbing the blood from his mouth. Sleeveless shirt, beanie hat, he knew them from school but he didn't know his name "What are you doing here kid?"

Seifer looked up at Cloud, his eyes were wide with fear "C-Cloud. I-I didn't know you'd be here"

Cloud lunged forward again, Axel preventing him from getting any nearer to Seifer "But you knew Leon would be here didn't you!"

None of them had noticed that the shower had stopped. Seifer stammered on "I-I-… I just wanted to come to Leon's house and-I…" Not many people knew it was Cloud's house too, he figured that was why Seifer was surprised to see him there.

"You don't have a good excuse do you, you little stalker! How long have you been sneaking around here?"

Seifer looked down, embarrassed. Which gave Cloud all the evidence he needed to know it was more than once. Axel was starting to lose his footing with all of Cloud's angry wriggling. The blonde was just breaking free to continue ramming his fist into Seifer's face when the bathroom window opened wide and a fully clothed Leon, albeit with wet hair, appeared and surveyed the scene. "What's going on out here? You're making a lot of noise"

"Him!" Cloud jerked his head since Axel was still grabbing his arms "He was looking in the window while you were showering!"

Leon looked down at Seifer in disgust "You were really doing that?"

Seifer couldn't do anything but stare at the bottom of the windowsill; he couldn't look at Leon's face. He was scared he was going to set Cloud on him.

"Get lost kid"

"What!" Cloud jerked so hard Axel nearly fell over "You're letting him go! Just like that!"

"I think you've beat him up enough. Now, have you calmed down?" Cloud grumbled a bit more before nodding "Okay Axel, you can let him go" Axel removed his grip from Cloud's chest and straightened up. The redhead chose this moment to walk over to Seifer, he grabbed the boy's shirt and pulled him to his feet.

"You got off light." His voice was low and menacing "But don't think this is the end of it. In school all they're going to talk about for the next week is that you've been stalking Leon. I'll make sure of that. Your precious reputation in your little gang, it'll be ruined. Now go!" Seifer ran away as fast as he could, whimpering. Axel yelled after him "Chicken wuss!"

Leon shook his head "That wasn't a very mature insult, Axel"

Axel shrugged his shoulders "Couldn't think of anything better, my mind's obviously been broken by the spectacle I've seen tonight"

Axel soon headed home and Cloud went inside. He sat on the couch with his head in Leon's lap "Are you ok?" he asked

Leon looked down at him and smiled "Yeah I'm fine. My privacy feels a little invaded but it'll be okay"

"Really? I was really mad. I thought you would have been too"

Cloud felt Leon stroking his head "I have you to get mad for me. Thank you for standing up for me Cloud, even if you did go a bit far"

Cloud snuggled up to Leon; he couldn't understand why his partner wasn't as livid over this as he was. But he knew he's never let that Seifer kid near him again.

Maybe it was because of that promise Cloud had made himself, that he now felt put out by the fact that Leon had gone to see Seifer of his own volition. He knew Leon meant it for the best; Cloud would just have to keep a close eye on the beanie kid in school the next day.

And so Wednesday rolled around and they were back in school. Cloud put his bike around the back with Axel's and noticed something out of the corner of his eye. It was Sora's twin, Roxas. His friends were making a big fuss over him because he seemed to have dyed his hair. Cloud met up with his own friends and as usual Sora was standing with Riku "Sora," Cloud said, "Your brother's new hair is cool" Sora giggled and gave a knowing smile to Riku. The senior was confused but thought nothing of it, must be something to do with the family.

Classes past as usual. Cloud was good in school but he wouldn't say he was exceptional. He got by with a comfortable amount of space between his grade and the class average. At lunch he thought he'd talk out his Leon worries to Axel. They weren't really worries per say, sometimes he just needed to make a big deal about it to someone and then it wouldn't bother him anymore. Leon had quickly gone to talk to Riku so Cloud took the opportunity to talk to Axel in the line for food. Mid conversation something seemed to distract him "I don't mind him going and seeing him to tell the little creep to get lost, but he could have at least told me before hand"

Axel nodded and reasoned with his friend "He probably didn't want you worrying about it all day" his green eyes widened as he saw a boy he thought he knew walk towards them, with vastly different hair.

Cloud sighed "Yeah, I know. I guess he was only looking out for me, like always"

Roxas was walking past them now and Axel's head had followed him "Uh….huh"

Cloud tilted his head "You ok there? Axel… hey" Axel's eyes were not leaving Sora's brother, even when he walked the other way the redhead still followed him "Hey Axel, I'm leaving Leon and declaring my undying love for Vincent"

Axel seemed to return to the conversation when Roxas sat down at his table "See. It'll all be fine don't you worry"

He rolled his eyes "Idiot"

"What?"

Sitting down at their own table Cloud cornered his friend "What's going on?"

Axel shoved a bread roll into his mouth and muffled "Nothing"

"Liar. You're still thinking about that Roxas kid. I can tell"

"How the hell did you know about him!"

Cloud smirked and folded his arms "I didn't"

The redhead smacked himself on the forehead "I hate you sometimes"

The blonde turned to face him "Spill it."

"But I-"

"Spill it or I'll get Yuffie to find out for me"

"Okay okay! Geez…" Axel then told Cloud about how Roxas had tried to confess his feelings to him. "You see, I told him I didn't do blondes" he then started to tug at Cloud's own locks "Because you know, it's like you. But the kid went and dyed his hair! I mean… who does that? What do I do now?"

Each tug was making Cloud's eye twitch a little more "That's all fine and dandy but let the hell go of my hair" Sora's knowing smile made a whole lot more sense now.

His friend retracted "Sorry… I really don't know what to do. Usually when I say stuff like that they just leave me alone"

Cloud put his chin on his hand and sighed, "You really are dense sometimes. He obviously likes you. He likes you enough to change his hair colour, and trust me; dyeing blonde hair never goes well, it's damn hard. Least you can do it go talk to him"

"But I don't know what to say"

"Say you like his hair."

"But-" Cloud pushed Axel up and out of his chair. The rest of the table was listening at this point

"Go on. You made him dye his hair, you owe him a conversation"

Axel was starting to get flustered "It's not like I have to go right now…" Although Cloud found this amusing he needed to get Axel moving.

Luckily he didn't have to do much. A very happy voice jumped out of nowhere "Axel! It's for love! You must face your destiny!"

"What?!" Yuffie immediately shoved Axel across the dining hall in the direction of Roxas' table.

The table laughed, not at Axel, more at the way in which he'd been disposed "Thanks Yuffie"

"No problem!"

It was then that Leon joined them "What's going on?"

Cloud smiled "We think Axel has a crush"

Leon's bottle of water stopped halfway to his mouth "Really? Axel?" Axel was known in their group for rejecting everyone. He'd never had a crush or shown any signs of being interested in anyone at school. "Are you sure?"

"He's all flustered because he told Roxas he didn't like blondes. Kid went and dyed his hair"

"Aw, that's cute. Well, it's something new for him anyway"

A little while later Axel returned, blushing slightly. Everyone was looking at him, expecting him to say something "What? I talked to him"

Yuffie lent forward across the table "Yeah, but what did you SAY?"

Axel seemed to fumble around for words "I liked his hair…. And I wanted his stylist" at this the table groaned.

Leon shook his head "Oh Axel, you're not too good at this are you?"

"I'm perfectly good at the whole talking suave thing thank you! I can get any girl to come home with me if I want"

Cloud smiled and looked Axel in the eye "Yeah, but you've never liked them before have you?" He was saved from a comeback by the bell telling them to return to their classes.

Cloud finished classes earlier than Axel so he immediately left for work instead of waiting around for him. He fixed two of the bikes that were in the shop, they didn't need much doing to them, and if he was honest, Cloud was usually bored at work when Axel wasn't around. Somehow having his friend swearing and clunking around in the background entertained him. Some time later Axel appeared, he was quiet and simply got on with his work.

"So..." Cloud said after the twentieth agonising minute of silence. Axel looked up at him questioningly. Cloud sighed "What did he say to you that's made you like this?"

"Nothing's wrong I'm fine" Cloud threw a spanner at Axel's head, missing on purpose but not by that much. "Ah! Okay, okay!" He came over to where Cloud and his tools were spread out and sat on the floor "I'm… I'm really confused"

Cloud had just wanted Axel to stop being so quiet but it occurred to him that his friend really did have a problem "You're confused over Roxas?"

Axel's eyes were staring down at the floor and he was playing with a screwdriver, passing it between all of his fingers as he mumbled "Usually they just leave me alone"

"Who do?"

"The people that confess their feelings to me. Sometimes… If I think they're genuine, I want to see how they really feel. So I'll tell them something"

Axel was beginning to seem a whole lot deeper than Cloud thought, "Like you don't like blondes?"

"Yeah… and usually they just see it as a rejection and never mention it again. Roxas is the first person to actually… do something"

"That's a good thing. It means he really likes you" Cloud had stopped tinkering with the engine in front of him and was fully paying attention.

Axel let out a big sigh and threw his hands up in the air, screwdriver and all "I know! And now I don't know what to do with him…. Cloud, why are you laughing?"

"Wow you're an idiot sometimes" The blonde calmed himself down "You finally have someone that's fallen head over heels for you, with barely knowing who you are instead of knowing you're one of the most popular guys in school and you're at a loss at what to do with him"

"Well… he does barely know me…"

"Then ask him out on a date"

"I can't do that!"

"Why not?"

"I… Well I- er"

Cloud's eyebrow arched upwards, then he pointed his finger at Axel and exclaimed, "You're shy!" Axel turned the same colour as his hair and Cloud couldn't help but giggle, "Oh, the suave and sexy Axel is too shy to ask the guy he likes out on a date"

"Oh shut up!"

"It's true though isn't it?"

"Cloud! Shut up!"

"It is!" The next thing Cloud knew he was pounced on and wrestled to the floor. The two boys rolled around the floor of the garage arguing. They only stopped when they heard a deep voice from the door way

"Well, I certainly didn't expect to find this"

Cloud froze, with Axel still on top of him. He laughed slightly nervously "Hi Leon"

Axel jumped off "Ah! Sorry Leon! I was trying to hit him"

Leon pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head laughing, "Don't worry about it"

"What are you doing here?" Cloud brushed himself off

"I was in the area. Thought I'd come keep you guys company"

Cloud folded his arms "There's no reason for you to be in the area. You were bored at home weren't you?"

Leon hesitated for a minute "Yeah. And I figured I'd come here for a bit then we'd go home together"

Axel cooed in the background of the 'coupley' scene "Aw! Aren't you a good little wifey!" He ducked to miss another spanner "Alright, I'm going!" he then slinked away to the forecourt leaving Cloud and Leon alone.

Leon jerked his head towards the doorway "He ok now?"

Cloud sat down on the dilapidated couch, Leon soon joined him "Yeah he's fine now. He's still going to sit and do nothing but he seems to feel a whole lot better and have his head in place"

"That's good" Leon smiled "Hopefully one day he'll get to be as happy as we are" He pulled Cloud's hand to his mouth and kissed it

"Oh, you are a good little wifey aren't you? All cheesy" Cloud began to laugh but was cut off by Leon's kiss. He pulled away after a moment "Kissing on this couch is beginning to become a habit… Squall" He lengthened the vowels in Leon's first name, saying them in a low, husky whisper. Only Cloud could get away with using that name. Leon growled deep in his throat and pinned Cloud to the couch.

"Oh you're in for it now Blondie" Before Cloud could even consider a witty retort Leon had taken his mouth again. The usual oral battle for dominance started. Cloud enjoyed the fight but always gave in. He tangled Leon's hair within his fingers and with the other hand began pulling on his jacket. He felt Leon's hand travel down his side and rest upon his belt, he was beginning to get breathless and the kisses weren't stopping. Not that he wanted them to. Cloud tilted his head back and Leon began to kiss down his neck to his collarbone. Leon slipped his hand under Cloud's shirt just as he nipped the skin at his collar, causing the blonde to gasp. Leon licked the minor wound and stroked Cloud's chest, he chuckled as he felt him writhe underneath him.

Axel is the master of timing. Whether it be bad or good. He chose that moment in time to return to the garage to ask about the bike on the forecourt "Hey Cloooouuuu- Sorry!" he cringed as he backed out. Axel didn't care about what they were doing; he was more embarrassed that he'd interrupted such a private thing.

The two older boys composed themselves and went to join Axel. Leon cleared his throat and said "Sorry about that" Cloud was still quite pink.

Axel waved his hand and laughed "No, no, don't worry about it"

"What's up?" Cloud shuffled on the spot a little. He'd never been seen in such a compromising position before.

"It's this bike. It looks ok to me but it's still not working" Cloud helped Axel with his work for a while and then they finished up for the night.

Some nights Axel would go home with Cloud, and they'd watch movies with Leon or have dinner. Tonight he felt he'd be imposing and so said his goodbyes to the couple.

He opened the door to his apartment; it was dark inside, so he knew his brother wasn't home yet. He dumped his bag on the couch and went to shower. Axel used his showers for thinking time and he had a lot to think about. He'd never felt that anyone was genuinely interested in him as a person before. Roxas had completely thrown him out of his comfort zone. He felt refreshed as the warm water hit him and stuck his hair down to his head.

"I wonder what he'll do next…"

* * *

Third chap finished! As always, reviews are cookies and love. I hope you enjoyed the little bit of Cleon action in there. I've never written smut before heh. Next chapter Roxas is back!


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter four my lovely readers! I'm really happy where this is going, and that you all seem to love it so much. Here's some guest appearances for you.

Warnings: As usual, yaoi, language and a new one: underage drinking of a humourous nature.

The one where Roxas does the chasing

"ARGH!"

"ARGH! ARGH! Oh my god! Get it off! Get it off!" Sora was running around in circles in the living room, Riku was running after him with a rolled up newspaper.

"Keep still then!"

Sora was still squealing "GetitoffgetitoffgetitoffgetitoffgetitoffGETITOFF!"

Roxas ran downstairs wondering what all the yelling was about. He entered the living room and desperately wished that he had a camera. Stopping himself from laughing he jumped in front of Sora and grabbed his shoulders whilst Riku managed to hit the offending insect away from Sora's neck. "There! Was it really so hard to stop?" Riku was out of breath and stalked off into the kitchen to get a drink.

Roxas shook his head "It was just a bug Sora"

"It was a big bug!" he shuddered remembering the crawling feeling on his neck. "What you up to today anyway?"

It was the weekend again. Roxas had spent the rest of the week trying to catch Axel alone. He wasn't very successful, as the older boy seemed to be glued to his friends. If it wasn't Cloud, it was Yuffie. The latter always waved whenever she saw Roxas and made Axel do the same, which caused the redhead to blush violently.

"I don't know" he replied

Sora suddenly perked up "Why don't you go visit Axel!"

"Visit him where?"

"At work" Sora shouted into the kitchen "Riku, you know where Axel works right?"

Riku reappeared, licking a sea salt ice cream. Roxas felt his eye twitch. "Yeah I know where it is. I'll take you there if you want"

"Er…" Roxas wasn't sure "You don't think it looks too desperate if I show up at his work?"

"Are you desperate?"

"Well I-"

"Well, are you?"

He sighed, defeated "Yeah, I guess I am"

"There you go then. I'll give you a ride once I've finished this" and he continued to devour the ice cream.

"But, I can't just show up!"

"Don't worry, I'll think of something"

A little while later Riku and Roxas were on the driveway, Sora was waving them off "Good luck!"

"I'm only going to see him!" Roxas yelled as he got onto the back of Riku's moped. Slightly uncomfortable, he shuffled forward and put his arms around his twin's boyfriend's waist. "So, is this like, your training wheels for a motorbike?"

Riku revved the engine "Hey, I like my moped… but yeah I'll get a bike one day."

"What is it with you three? You, Cloud and Axel, you're all obsessed with bikes"

Riku waved back to Sora as they set off down the road "Great minds think alike"

Roxas was rarely alone with Riku. He was at a loss at what to say. He never particularly liked him that much but he also didn't know very much about Riku "Riku…"

"Yeah?"

"Why do you date Sora?"

"Because I love him"

Roxas didn't know what he was expecting the answer to be, but it certainly wasn't that. "That's it?"

"Does there need to be anything else?"

"No… I guess not" He figured he might have misunderstood Riku a little. Roxas still wasn't going to forgive him for all the ice creams he ate though.

Riku pulled up to the garage and dismounted his moped. Cloud emerged from the garage, expecting a customer "Oh hey Riku."

Riku immediately went to action "Hey Cloud, my engine's been making a few funny noises. I wondered if you could take a look at it."

"Yeah sure I can"

Riku turned to Roxas "Don't worry Roxas, I shouldn't be too long. Sorry you had to come with me" he turned back to Cloud "I was picking him up from town, that's when the engine started to sound weird"

Cloud looked at Roxas' confused face "Uh… huh"

"Roxas, it looks like it's going to rain you better go inside the garage"

Cloud looked up, the sky was clear. Riku elbowed him, gave him a look and nodded his head towards the garage doors "Oh! Oh yeah. They said it would rain today. Go inside Roxas there's a couch and everything."

"O…kay" Roxas didn't know what was going on, but at least Riku had given him an excuse for being there. He opened the door and went inside. Suddenly he heard a voice from near the back.

"Hey! Have you seen the multi-speed drill?"

He tentatively stepped further inside "It's not Cloud. It's-It's me"

Axel walked out to see who 'me' was. He stopped as soon as he realised "Oh... oh... Hi"

"Hi"

They both shuffled on the spot "So, what are you doing here Roxas?"

His throat caught he hearing Axel say his name.

_I'm such a girl_

He quickly remembered Riku's excuse "Riku picked me up from town and his engine went funny"

Axel picked up a tool and started for the door "I better go see what-"

"Cloud's doing it!" Roxas winced at his eagerness.

"Oh, ok." Axel didn't really know what to say, "Why don't you have a seat. You want a drink or anything?"

Roxas sat down on the shabby looking couch "No, I'm fine, Thanks"

"'kay" After a minute or so Axel joined him. "So… what kind of music do you like?"

Roxas was sitting there ready for a nice dose of awkward silence and so he was startled "Oh. I like most things. I'm into skatepunk at the minute"

He smiled as Axel replied, "Yeah, I've heard some of that stuff. It's quite cool" At that moment one of the springs in the base of the couch gave out, causing both teens to dip into each other at the middle. Roxas blushed, and turned an even deeper shade of crimson when he noticed Axel was too.

The redhead cleared his throat and stood up "Should probably check how Cloud and Riku are doing" Roxas noticed a hand being held out in front of him. He took it and found himself eased upwards from the couch. He managed a small "Thanks" and the two exited the garage.

They found Cloud and Riku were standing by the moped talking.

"You finished?" Axel asked walking over to the blonde

"What...? Yeah, yeah I'm done"

Axel moved closer to Cloud and growled, "You two have trashed that couch" Cloud simply grinned. Roxas decided he was better off not knowing. They said their goodbyes; Riku thanked Cloud for his imaginary repairs and Roxas found himself on the back of the moped clinging to the silver-haired boy again.

"How'd it go?"

"Nothing really happened"

"Did you talk?"

"Yeah, but only a little. I wasn't in there long" Roxas clung onto Riku for his life as he took a sharp corner at substantial speed.

"That's all he needs"

"What?"

Traffic lights gave Riku the chance to turn and face his passenger "Now that you've gone and spoke to him, he'll be thinking about you. The more he thinks about you, the more chance of him liking you"

He was dumbfounded "You planned that from the start didn't you?"

"Yeah, a little" Revving up they set off again

"You manipulated me!"

"I gave you a push"

"And Sora did!" He realised that his twin must have been in on it too

"Aren't you happy we did?"

All witty retorts failed "Yeah… thanks"

Roxas was happy to make it home all in one piece. Walking up the driveway he thought to ask Riku something "Did you have to do all this, making him think of you stuff, with Sora?"

Riku opened the door to the house and laughed, "No, your brother was easy to get!"

Sora, coming to greet them, stumbled across the conversation at the wrong point "I was not easy to get into bed Riku!"

"Sora, that's not what he asked me"

"Oh." At this Sora escaped to the kitchen mumbling that 'dinner needed something doing to it or something'

Meanwhile, Cloud was standing in the courtyard of his work and edging ever closer to his bike.

"You ass!" Axel yelled at him

Cloud shrugged "What? What did I do?"

"You know what you did"

Just a bit further "I didn't do anything. Riku and Roxas just showed up"

"You sent him into the garage, I had nothing to say!"

Cloud faltered. Just… a few… more… steps "Riku did it not me!"

"Then you're both asses!"

Cloud made it to his bike and jumped on. When Axel was mad the blonde was quite scared of him "Well, it's the end of my shift, see you later Axel!" at that he sped off to the safety of his home. Axel grumbled in frustration and stomped back into the garage.

Later, he closed up the garage after it started to rain; it was almost closing time so he went home. He opened the door and noticed the newspaper and post still on the floor. His brother wasn't home yet. Axel had some issues with his parents and after one particularly bad fight he stayed with his older brother. Somehow, along the way it had become somewhat of a permanent thing as more and more of Axel's belongings found their way into the spare room. Axel had started to work at the garage to give something towards the rent. He wasn't asked for it, he just never wanted to feel like a dependant leech.

Axel was still peeved at Cloud and Riku. As he searched for a cup to make tea he pondered on his friends actions. He knew that they were only trying to help him and so he shouldn't be so angry. It was all just a bit sudden, having Roxas suddenly there talking to him. Axel felt like a dork after their last encounter, Roxas' little hair stunt had shocked him. The redhead didn't know where he stood with the younger boy, it was obvious that Roxas liked him but Axel was desperately unsure of his own feelings. He thought on his feeling whilst pouring hot water for his tea and concluded that Roxas made him feel strange, lightheaded and ever so slightly nervous.

"Oh my god! That's so cheesy!" Axel smacked himself in the forehead

"What is?" Axel turned and saw his brother coming in through the doorway. The rain had caused his usually spiky black hair to deflate a little.

"Hey Zack"

"Hey. So what's so cheesy?"

Axel began setting out a cup for his drenched brother "Don't worry about it. How was your day?"

"It was fine, nothing exciting. Thanks Ax" Zack took the cup of hot tea "So, my dearest little brother"

Alarm bells instantly went off in Axel's head. Zack only spoke like that when he wanted something "..yes?"

"What's been up with you?" he sipped his tea and found it too hot. Axel looked at him, bemused as Zack fanned his tongue.

"Nothing"

"You've been acting weird the past few days"

"No I haven't" Axel hid behind his own cup. Zack was awfully good at cornering him into 'kitchen talks'

"Yes you have. You know you can't lie to me"

"I haven't been feeling well"

Zack shook his head, sending droplets of water over the kitchen counter "Nope, it's not that kind of weird"

"Dad called and we had another fight" He was grasping at straws.

"Nope it's not that kind of weird either. This one's a new one. Come on, tell your big brother what's wrong"

"Nothing's wrong"

Zack stood up, put down his tea and squished Axel's cheeks together with the palms of his hands. He thoroughly enjoyed doing this as a child, when he made the younger boy smile he swore he looked like a hamster "You've definitely told Cloud about it, you always do. So you may as well tell me because you know I can make Blondie talk"

Axel swatted his brother's hands away and sighed "Ok fine" he then recounted to Zack his various encounters with Roxas. Zack just smiled at him, which caused him to falter "Don't… don't you think it's weird?"

The black-haired man shrugged "So you like a boy, big deal"

"…Wow, you're ..blunt. It's not that… I mean, I'm not-"

Zack returned to his cheek squishing "Axel, you're crushing so hard it's like… ok, that one ran away from me. But it's big!"

"Would you pleash shtop that"

"Aw, but you look so cute. You're even blushing" another hand swat caused Zack to stop.

Axel sighed "Zack, I really don't know what to do…" Zack looked at his forlorn sibling and then gave him a hug.

"Don't you worry, you just leave it all to your big brother"

Roxas had been quite pleased with himself since Saturday. He had started to be nicer to Riku. He'd eaten three of his sea salt ice creams and Roxas hadn't said a thing, or even gone and hidden the box in the freezer in their garage like he usually did when Riku was stealing too many. Even school had gone well that day, he'd done well in his classes, Seifer was no where to be seen so he didn't have to stop Hayner from trying to get in a fight with him and he got the last pudding at lunch. Everything was coming up Roxas.

He walked towards the school gates at the end of the day, his jacket lazily slung over his shoulder. Roxas then saw something quite peculiar. There was a tall man with black hair standing in the middle of the gates. He seemed to be in his twenties and was scanning the area, looking down at a piece of card in front of him and then back up again. The man caught sight of Roxas, looked down at the card and then back at Roxas again, grinning.

The boy's mind went into overdrive as the tall man began to walk towards him.

_Do I run away?_

_Do I say hi?_

_Who the hell stands at school gates looking for people… except paedophiles… oh my god is he one of them? But he looks so nice._

By the time Roxas' mind had finished its spasm Zack was standing right in front of him "Hi!"

"Argh!"

"Huh?"

"Sorry… erm… Hello"

Zack grabbed his arm and started to lead him out "I'm Zack and you're coming with me" he wasn't sure which to be more scared of, the fact he was being lead away by a stranger or that said stranger was smiling happily.

Halfway down the street Roxas snapped out of his daze "Hold on a minute, who are you?"

"I'm Zack"

"Yeah but…."

"I'm an interested party" Zack stopped and thought for a second, mumbling to himself "No, that sounded creepy… erm…" he then returned to talking to Roxas "I'm here to check you out"

Roxas thought that answer was just as creepy as the first.

"Where are you taking me… Zack? You don't even know my name" he had succumbed to being slightly dragged along

"I know your name, Roxas. See?" Zack showed him the card he had been looking at earlier. It was a picture of Roxas from the class book. "You changed your hair though… but it's ok because I knew about that"

The younger boy stared at the photograph stunned "Where did you get that?"

Placing the picture back in his pocket Zack said offhandedly "I can get Cloud to do anything, 'til Leon steps in. But then I get Riku to do it"

_It's official. I'm either dead, high or in the twilight zone._

He decided to go with it "Where are we going?"

"My cousin's bar. It's not far from here"

"I'm too young to go to a bar… and my brother will be looking for me"

Zack laughed and waved his hand dismissing the statement "Don't worry, it's my cousin, he'll let you in. Riku's distracting your brother" This caused Roxas to roll his eyes.

They rounded a corner and were suddenly in front of a bar with two large Rs above the door in ornate writing "We're here!" Zack proclaimed.

The doors were flung open and Roxas was thrown in. A large hand was immediately placed on his chest "I don't think so, kid" Roxas looked up, and up some more to see a large bald man wearing sunglasses.

"Rude, it's ok I told Reno it's fine" Zack patted the man on the shoulder.

Rude's eyebrow twitched "Whatever, but you better behave Zack"

"Promise" Zack sang. Roxas was pushed forward into the bar. It was dully lit, with low music playing in the background. It was empty except for a few men playing pool near the back and the man standing behind the bar.

"Hey kid" he said as Roxas was put onto a bar stool "What'll it be?" Now, even though Roxas was Sora's twin, he liked to think that he put things together a fair bit quicker than his brother. 'This barman must be Zack's cousin' he thought, he looked at the man, green eyes, red hair and facial tattoos. That meant only one thing in Roxas' mind, which of course he immediately blurted out like an idiot.

"Axel! You're related to Axel?"

Zack sat next to Roxas and patted him on the back "Bright one aren't ya! I'm Axel's big brother. And this is our cousin Reno"

Reno shook his head "Honestly Zack, getting minors drunk in my bar"

"He's not drunk yet…" the two men laughed and Roxas started to plan his escape route.

"Reno, this is Roxas"

Reno lent forward on the bar and looked into Roxas's face, causing the boy to squirm "I see. So you're him huh? Zack told me all about you. Don't worry, we'll look after you here, Roxy"

Blue eyes narrowed "It's Roxas" but he was ignored as Reno began to prepare drinks.

"I'm guessing you want the usual Zack. Wish you'd drink a proper drink, like vodka"

A brightly coloured drink with fruit in the top was placed in front of Zack. One equally as fluorescent was put in front of Roxas with a cocktail umbrella in the top. "Hey!" Zack complained, "Where's my umbrella?" Reno tutted and a small umbrella immediately appeared.

"There, you big kid. So Roxy, how did you meet our little Axel? And drink up"

Roxas took a sip of his drink; it tasted like a mix of fruit juices so he sipped some more "I saw him in an arcade. Why do you want to know?"

Zack's drink was already half empty "We just want to find some things out about the person who has my little brother in such a… twizzle"

"Twizzle?" Roxas took a big gulp of his drink. He liked juice.

Zack realised that he didn't want to give away something that Axel didn't want known "Nevermind. Why did you change your hair?"

Roxas was starting to feel uncomfortable "I… just felt like a change, that's all"

Reno and Zack exchanged glances and said no more. Reno returned to fussing about the bar area and occasionally serving the pool players. Zack kept Roxas talking for an hour or so, about little things of no importance, he was beginning to like Zack, he was a nice person. What Roxas didn't notice was that he was drinking his drinks quite quickly, and that every time Roxas emptied his glass, Reno put another in front of him.

Zack was a little tipsy "So Roxas, why do you like my brother?"

Roxas didn't know why, but he felt like he could tell Zack anything in the world. "Initially, I didn't know. But now I've seen him more. He's a nice person; he's really good with his friends and younger students. There's… something about him that I don't know yet but I know I like it." Roxas lent his elbow on the bar and put his chin in his hands "Plus he's got a damn good ass"

At which Reno suddenly appeared "I'll drink to that!"

"Reno, you can't drink, you're working"

"Aw Rude! You ruin all my fun"

With a smile on his face Zack thought he'd try once more "Why did you dye your hair?"

Roxas' eyes were half-lidded and in a wistful voice he said, "I wanted him to notice me." He toyed with the umbrella in the top of another empty glass "There are so many people that like Axel. He could have any one of them, there was a little hopeful part of me that thought if I could make him notice, he might pick me"

Zack slid off his stool and put his arms around Roxas' shoulders "Tell me. Tell me that this isn't just a hormonal crush and that you wont hurt him"

The younger boy looked up into the taller man's eyes, tears appearing at the side of his own "I think… I think I love him"

The older brother smiled and hugged Roxas "Then you're okay by me kid." Throwing some munny down on the bar he turned to Reno "I think we're done"

Reno stopped cleaning glasses "What? I missed it? Shit."

"Zack?" Roxas had stood up from his stool and was clinging onto the bar; his legs didn't seem to be working "I feel icky"

Zack looked down at Roxas, hopeless "Er… Reno? What do you do with a drunk minor?"

Reno shrugged "I love you Cuz, but he's your problem. That's what you get for telling me to make him fruit liqueur drinks"

"You gave him too many!"

"Not my problem! Take him home"

"You're the worst barman ever Reno! And I don't know where he lives"

Reno walked off shaking his head. Zack pulled out his phone and dialled a number "Hey, I need a hand…" he heard a thud "oh shit!" picking Roxas up off the floor he took him outside.

Standing out in the fresh air for a while sobered Roxas up a little. Although Zack was still holding onto him he could stand on his own. Suddenly a moped rounded the corner and an angry looking Riku jumped off "Zack, what did you think you were doing!"

He handed Roxas over to Riku "Reno did it!"

"Hi Riku!"

Riku growled with frustration "Hey Roxas. Look Zack, I told you it was ok to take him and talk to him about Axel. Not to get him off his face! It's barely dark!"

Zack started to back away "He wouldn't talk otherwise! And Reno wasn't supposed to give him that many drinks"

Placing Roxas on the back of the moped Riku turned on Zack "You could have stopped him, you're both terrible adults!"

Black-haired head hung low, shuffling his feet he mumbled "Sorry Riku. I wont get him drunk next time"

Riku sighed and mounted his moped "You're lucky I don't tell Axel. How the hell am I going to explain this to Sora?" after scolding Zack a little more he said goodbye and drove Roxas home.

Said Roxas was almost asleep on Riku's shoulder "Hey, hey! Roxas, come on don't fall asleep you'll fall off"

Roxas mumbled something that sounded like "ok" and held onto Riku's midriff tighter.

At the bottom of their driveway Riku stopped the moped and helped Roxas get off "Riku, why did Zack want to talk to me?"

The silver-haired boy sighed "Because you make Axel act strange"

"I do?" He fumbled around in his pocket and found his house keys

"Yes, you do. I wish you'd hurry up and deal with it already" Riku wasn't in a very good mood that night. Sora had kept wondering where Roxas was and Riku had to stop him from calling the police numerous times. Then when Zack had called begging Riku to come and help him, he had to make some form of excuse to Sora so he could leave. He didn't like lying to his boyfriend.

Roxas swivelled on the spot and faced Riku "What the hell does that mean?" it seems Roxas was more volatile when drunk.

"It means Axel is my friend. If you really like him so much then stop screwing around and do something about it. You've confused the hell out of him; he's never been like this before. If he likes you he has no idea what the feelings mean and you're not helping him at all just sitting there doing nothing. Why do you think Sora and I stepped in and made you go to the garage? Otherwise you'd still be here, bitching about how you like him so much and he doesn't feel the same way. Grow up Roxas!" He hadn't meant to explode like that, but it obtained the desired effect.

"What the hell Riku!" Roxas started to flail his key about at Riku as he spoke "First you're just annoying being around all the time and screwing my brother, then you're my friend and now you're yelling at me for not making a move? Well… screw you!"

"Why are you trying to hit me with that key?"

Roxas' anger melted away "I… I'm sorry" he held his head "I don't feel well"

Riku calmed down "Me too, come on, let's get you inside"

As soon as they stepped over the threshold Sora began to fuss over them. Riku, begrudgingly lying to his boyfriend again, told Sora that Roxas had eaten something that had made him sick. After making sure everything was ok he left Sora to it. Later in the night Roxas took a turn for the worst, it had taken a long time for the rest of the alcohol to hit him. In the bathroom Sora held back his hair until Roxas felt better.

Sitting on the bathroom floor, Sora had brought him a glass of water "Are you feeling better?"

"Yeah, thanks Sora"

Sora sat next to him and rubbed his head "Don't worry about it"

Roxas smiled the best he could in his weakened state. "Sora," he said seriously "Do you think I'm doing this right?"

"Getting sick?"

"No, this whole Axel thing?"

"That's not for me to say Roxas. Why do you ask?"

"Riku made me think of something. I've been so concerned about my feelings for Axel, I didn't think about how I was making him feel"

Sora simply pulled Roxas' head to rest on his shoulder, Roxas continued, "You're with him a fair bit right? Is he, different from usual?"

"Yeah, a little"

"…oh"

Sora smiled "I'm sure it'll all work out though. Maybe you just need to show him you care again?"

"What do you mean?"

Sora played with Roxas' black hair, it was starting to grow out and blonde was appearing at the roots "Your hair shocked him. It's like; you threw your feelings right in front of his face when he didn't even know they existed. It may be time for something a little more subtle"

"You're having a big-brother-I-know-how-to-fix-this moment aren't you?"

"I don't get them very often, let me bask in my glory"

"You're only twenty minutes older than me. It doesn't count for much"

"Shush you."

Roxas felt well enough to leave the bathroom and Sora put him to bed. His head was far too fuzzy to coherently think on his actions so he left them until morning. Slowly drifting into sleep Axel's face appeared behind his eyes and he smiled.

Little did he know that he was going to have the mother of all hangovers when he woke up.

* * *

Finished! Reviews are love and cookies and shiny things but I also thank all the people who have story alerted this fic as well. I hope I did well with this one and you like the character additions. Anyhoos, til the fifth!


	5. Chapter 5

Hello dear reader people. I know, this one's been much later than my usual updates, a lot has happened to me since my last chapter which meant I wasn't able to write as I wanted to. They would have all turned emo and nobody wants that. Anyhoos, once everything was ok again I fought through my subsequent writer's block and worked on this. I didn't want to rush it because I was horribly late; I wanted it to be good. So I hope it is good for you. I'll stop the stupidly long intro now, apologies for the delay and enjoy!

Usual warnings: Yaoi, minor language and what not.

* * *

The one where Roxas does the chasing

"Hey Roxas!"

"Ow. Please don't yell" Roxas was cradling his head in his arms, face down at his desk.

Olette peered down at him "Are you ok Roxas?"

He groaned "Why is everyone shouting today?"

Hayner laughed "Ha ha, Sora told us you were sick last night but if I didn't know any better I'd say you had a hang over"

"Hayner!" Olette scolded, "How could you say such a thing! You know Roxas would never drink underage"

Roxas decided not to say anything. Although his pounding head and queasy stomach told him he never wanted to drink that much ever again, underage or not.

Suddenly there was a commotion amongst the people at the front of the class. Roxas blearily looked up to see a frantic mass of flaming red hair scanning the room. Green eyes found Roxas' pale face and lean eyebrows shot together in worry.

Axel ran across the room and stopped in front of the younger boy's desk, much to the amazement of the rest of the students. "Roxas! Are you ok? They didn't do anything stupid did they? Oh my god I'm so, so sorry. I had no idea Zack was going to do that I'm really sorry Roxas"

As his classmates looked on, slack jawed, Roxas held up his hand to stop Axel from blurting out any more apologies "Don't worry about it. I'm fine really, just not feeling too good. Zack and Reno were nice to me and Zack took care of me at the end of the night… sort of. How did you find out?"

Axel turned the chair from the desk in front to face Roxas' and sat down. Looking into Roxas' face and affirming for himself the boy was ok, he said, "Zack can't keep anything from me. He's crap at keeping secrets, especially his own. He came home looking sheepish and immediately told me everything that had happened because he felt guilty for not keeping an eye on how much Reno was giving you. I'm surprised that idiot still has his licence" more relaxed now Axel leaned back in the chair and smiled "Your hair's turning brown"

Roxas' hair was indeed growing out of the black and washing it was causing the colour to fade. He groaned "I'm going to look like Sora soon" Roxas noticed that although the redhead before him was smiling, concern still tweaked at his forehead "Axel, I'm ok really. Thank you for coming to check on me… I- I appreciate it"

Standing to leave, the taller boy smiled more sincerely "No worries. Look, I'll find you at lunch and give you something to make you feel better, ok? See ya around!" he winked and gave a little salute as he left the classroom.

Roxas found the entire class staring at him "…What?"

Hayner broke out of his shocked silence "What the hell, Roxas!"

Cloud was calmly sitting in his own classroom, patiently waiting for the teacher to arrive so his educational day could begin. However, what barrelled through the door way was not his teacher but his best friend who promptly perched himself on Cloud's desk and grinned. "Axel, what are you doing he-"

"I need a favour"

Cloud was sceptical "…why?"

"Aw Come on. You owe me for the garage thing"

The blonde folded his arms defiantly "I think you'll find _I_ did _you_ a favour there. So _you_ owe _me_"

"… just shut up and help me"

By lunch Roxas' headache had eased slightly but he still felt like death warmed up. He resumed his head-on-the-desk pose at their lunch table where he wasn't eating anything for fear of very quickly being reacquainted with it. He watched the people go by and interact at their respective tables as Hayner, Pence and Olette ate their food and talked about mundane things. His eyes wandered to Cloud's table. The blonde was missing but Vincent, Yuffie, Leon, Sora and Riku were all there. As usual, Riku and Sora were being the school's 'cute couple' as Riku fed some of his lunch to Roxas' twin.

Cloud walked into Roxas' vision, but instead of sitting at his table he continued over to Axel who was waiting in line. Handing him a small green bowl and receiving a grin and hug in return, Cloud went back to sit with Leon. Roxas couldn't help but think what on Earth it was, unless Axel suddenly liked to have a packed lunch. Pondering, he closed his eyes to rest for a little while.

"Is he awake?" a smooth voice broke into Roxas' unconscious state and he felt a small tap on his shoulder. He opened his eyes and lifted his heavy-feeling head from the tabletop. His eyes focused and he found Axel standing in front of him. "Hey, I wake you?"

He rubbed his eyes "No, it's fine"

"Erm… here" A green bowl covered over in tin foil was placed before him. Axel's cheeks were tinged with the faintest of pinks.

"What's this?" Roxas lifted the tin foil from the bowl to reveal the contents. It was soup; by the looks of it there was some chicken and vegetables.

The redhead shifted his weight "It's Cloud's hangover soup. Whenever I'm hung-over he brings it to me and I feel better. I thought you, you know… needed it."

Roxas blushed "T-Thank you"

"Don't worry about it" and with that Axel returned to his friends. The younger boy tentatively tried the soup and it tasted good. He'd never pegged Cloud as the cooking type but he was obviously skilled, in making hangover cures at least. Maybe Axel felt guilty because it was over him that Zack and Reno had got Roxas so drunk. Or maybe he was just being nice. He thought on Riku's words from the night before as he drained the bowl of the last of the liquid.

Roxas went to the bathroom to clean the bowl out in the sink. He wanted to give it back to Axel but unknowing of where the older boy would be he settled for pushing the job on his brother. With the now clean bowl in his hands he found Sora sitting outside with Riku and he joined them. "Hey!"

Sora saw more colour in Roxas' face and smiled "Well you seem to be feeling much better" and in fact, he did. He didn't feel nauseous and his headache was almost gone, Cloud's miracle soup had done its job.

"Yeah much better. Could you give this back to Axel for me please? You'll probably see him before I do"

Riku took the bowl from Roxas' hand "Oh yeah, this is Cloud's. He told me he had to go home and make his ha-" he remembered the presence of his boyfriend, "-his ant-food poisoning soup" satisfied that Sora didn't pick up on his quick correction Riku stored the bowl in his bag.

"What?" It had only just occurred to Roxas that Cloud wasn't going to have a stash of cooking materials in his locker.

"Axel asked him to go home and make it for you before lunch."

"…Oh"

"Don't worry, he had a free period so he didn't skip class or anything" Sora said cheerfully "But hey! This means Axel does like you, I mean, you don't go and do that for just anybody do you?"

Roxas smiled "No I guess not" A shrill bell cut their conversation short and the three boys returned to class.

During class Roxas wasn't paying attention and instead he was thinking on Axel's actions of the day. He couldn't help but think that his brother had a point; you don't beg your best friend to run home and bring something back for you to give to someone, unless it was important to you. Roxas knew that he had to make a move soon, especially since he had some confirmation that Axel was beginning to feel for him. But it had to be subtle…

At the end of the school day Hayner was trying to find Roxas to ask him to come to the arcade again. His friend had practically run out at the end of class, the last place Hayner looked was the bathrooms. He opened the door and found Roxas staring at himself in the mirror, muttering under his breath "Hello, I was wondering… no that sounds too weak… Hey!" Hayner saw him wink into the mirror "How about you… oh god no" Roxas roughly shoved his fingers through his hair "Argh! Why is this so hard?"

"Hey Roxas!"

The other boy jumped "Crap! Oh hey Hayner"

"You ok?"

"Yeah I'm fine. Sorry, have you been waiting for me?"

Hayner smiled and folding his arms he lent back against the wall "Yeah, but don't worry about it"

Roxas was embarrassed at his self-pep talk being discovered "I-I was just…"

"Trying to ask someone out on a date?"

"…Yeah…"

He smirked and sauntered over to Roxas, putting his arms over the back of his shoulders so they were both staring into the mirror "It's that Axel guy isn't it?" he noticed blue eyes widen and Roxas' mouth moving as if trying to defend himself but not making any noise "It's ok. I know I'm dumb. But you've been acting weird lately. Dyeing your hair, disappearing with tall guys, coming into school hung over and you've been spacey. If dating this guy is going to get us the old Roxas back then I'm all for it"

"Hayner… I'm sorry" Roxas cast his eyes down "I guess I'm been ignoring you guys a little."

Hayner squeezed his friend a little harder "Hey! It's ok. I'm just a little upset you didn't tell us you liked the guy"

"How did you know it was Axel?"

"Roxas I said I was dumb but I've got eyes, man! He comes running into class to check on you and brings you food at lunch. Not to mention the time he took you out the lunch hall to talk to you and the fact that every time he gets mentioned in conversation you blush a little. But no matter" He turned Roxas to face him and punched him on the arm "You go get 'im! And any guy that doesn't want to date our Roxas is going to hear from me!" He grinned and Roxas hugged him.

"Thanks Hayner. It means a lot"

"Don't worry about it! Now go! Before he leaves"

Roxas checked himself in the mirror once more and ran out the bathroom "I'll call you later!"

Hayner waved and smiled. He was sad to see Roxas go like that, he knew things would never be the same again in their little group. But if Roxas was happy, then it would be all right.

Roxas rushed outside, he was surprised by how observant Hayner had been. But now that he had his friends behind him he didn't feel so scared about asking Axel out. He rounded the corner were Axel kept his bike and found the older boy removing the chain, once again teasing Roxas with the tight jeans he wore.

"… Er… Axel?" Roxas cringed at his own hesitation; he needed to be more assertive.

Axel spun around and saw Roxas "Hi. You feeling better?"

"Yeah thanks. It really helped. I gave the bowl to Riku to give back to you"

"Oh right. I haven't seen him yet but I'm sure I'll get it"

_Enough with the small talk_

Roxas took a deep breath "I wanted to ask you something"

Axel sat down on the seat of his bike "Yeah?"

His throat had chose that particular moment to completely dry out. He swallowed hard "I'd like to ask you out on a date" Roxas could feel his face burning, but he felt better when he saw Axel's own cheeks were ablaze with a raging blush.

"You're asking _me_ out?"

Standing defiant Roxas hooked his thumbs into his belt loops "That's exactly what I'm doing"

_Please say yes. Please say yes. Please say yes._

"I… er… I've never been asked out before" Axel had had plenty of people confess their undying love for him but this was different.

The younger boy couldn't take it anymore "So…?"

"Erm… I-… Sure"

"Really?" Roxas hadn't been expecting a rejection but nor was he expecting an acceptance.

Axel smiled "Yeah. When do you wanna go?"

He was ridiculously excited "Tomorrow? After school?"

Axel's smile fell "Crap, I've got work"

"I'll cover the shift for you!" Roxas turned quickly enough just to see the top of Cloud's head disappear behind a wall.

"Cloud shut up!" hushed Yuffie's voice

"Well he wouldn't go if he had work!"

"Why are we doing this?" It seemed Vincent was in the spying group too

"Shut up Vincent!"

Axel started to laugh, which caused Roxas to giggle. They were both laughing so hard Roxas steadied himself against the fence and Axel clung to his ribs to stop them from hurting.

Calming down the redhead mounted his bike "I'll see you tomorrow then Roxas" he smiled as he walked the bike past Roxas and revved the engine.

"...Uh… Bye!" Roxas was sure that that smiling face would be imprinted onto his mind for quite some time.

Extremely happy with himself Roxas started to walk towards the school gates to meet Sora. He passed a bush very close to a wall where Vincent was standing with his arms folded. A large spike of blonde hair was protruding from the greenery and a slender hand appeared and pulled Vincent down with great force "Vincent he'll see you!" It was Yuffie again.

"He's already there now let go of me!"

Roxas peered over the bush and found Cloud and Yuffie sheepishly staring back up at him. Vincent just looked pissed. "Thanks for letting Axel off work, Cloud"

"No problem… erm, don't mind the spying"

"Sure, just don't come on our date"

Yuffie stood up and hugged Roxas "Aw! You're both so cute!"

Vincent was brushing dirt off his long red coat "Yuffie, the boy can't breathe"

"Whoopsie! Sorry"

Coughing a little Roxas waved goodbye and headed towards Sora. He couldn't help but smile all the way home. As soon as they crossed the threshold Sora let out a girly squeal "Tell me what happened!"

The high-pitched noise took Roxas by surprise "What?"

His twin was bouncing on the balls of his feet "I saw you talking to Axel and you haven't stopped grinning all the way home! Tell me what happened!"

"Okay! Okay, calm down" They sat down on the kitchen stools and Roxas told his tale of asking Axel on a date.

Sora had made himself an orange juice and Roxas a coffee. "It was nice of Cloud to take the shift from Axel" he said as he sipped, "What are you going to do tomorrow?"

Roxas had spent so long worrying about getting Axel to actually come on a date; he'd forgotten to think of where to take him "Erm… town?"

Sora nodded "There's some good movies on, and you could go get something to eat"

"Yeah." Roxas figured he'd just wing it.

Sora gave him a mischievous grin "You excited?"

He blushed "Yeah"

"Good!" Sora stood and hugged him "I've got to go see Riku so I'll see you later"

Roxas couldn't settle for the rest of the night. He called Hayner and gushed while his friend patiently listened and told him he was happy for him. After talking on the phone for over an hour he was still bouncing off the walls. He tried playing videogames, reading, cooking, watching TV and anything else he could find to entertain himself with. But still, the next day couldn't come quick enough.

Meanwhile, a tall man with black hair was sitting on his couch when the door suddenly burst open and he found a pair of arms around his neck, hugging his head into a chest.

"I really love you, you know that?"

Zack looked up and was greeted with the grinning face of his younger brother "Good day?"

Axel jumped over the back of the couch and sat next to Zack "Very good day"

"Oh really?"

"Oh yeah," Axel punched him in the arm "That's for giving Roxas a huge hangover"

"Ow! Ok, I get it, don't take your squeeze out and get him drunk"

The redhead grinned "Speaking of squeeze…"

"You're finally going on a date?" The widening grin was all the answer Zack needed "Yay!" he pulled Axel into a hug "I'm really happy for you Axe"

"I'm happy too. But now begs the big question"

Zack let his little brother go and looked at him, confused "Oh, what's that?"

"What the hell am I going to wear!"

The next day went as a blur for both Axel and Roxas. Roxas had tried to go to lunch an hour and a half early and Axel nearly had a panic attack when he thought his bike had been stolen. That was, until Cloud told him he'd parked it in the wrong place. Both boys were a bit flustered.

At the end of the day Roxas thought his heart was going to jump out of his ribcage. Sora had helped him wash his hair, very roughly, and pick out his clothes. So now his hair was very dark blonde, he wore a blue shirt and some cargo pants. He walked outside and found Axel sitting on his motorbike, holding an extra helmet while wearing a black shirt, which was open to the middle of his chest and clinging in all the right places. He was wearing his usual tight jeans and cowboy boots.

"Ready to go, Blondie?"

Roxas smirked "Sure, if you'll make an exception to the no blondes rule"

The redhead mockingly considered the proposal "Ok, just for you" He straddled the bike seat and shuffled forward so Roxas could climb on, throwing him the spare helmet. "Where are we headed?"

Putting his arms around Axel's slim waist his breath caught "Erm… into town"

"Okie dokie! You're in charge" and with that Axel started up the bike and left the school grounds with Roxas as his passenger. Much to the amazement of anyone who saw them.

Roxas enjoyed the ride. He'd only ever been on Riku's moped so riding on a motorbike was like being on the grown-up version. Although he appreciated the machine, he appreciated hugging into Axel's back for the entire journey far more. They arrived in the town and they parked the bike.

"So," Axel said whilst stretching "You planned this out?"

"Not exactly. But I heard there're some good movies out. We could go see one and then eat somewhere"

Axel chuckled "Dinner and a movie huh? Sure lets go have a look." They started to walk together towards the cinema "Wait, does that make me the girl?"

Roxas reached for Axel's hand and said, "Yes, yes it does"

Shrugging, he accepted "At least you're honest about it" both of them blushing slightly, holding hands as they walked.

It wasn't long before they were reading the showing times on the wall of the cinema. Roxas didn't want to go see a 'date' movie, especially since he didn't like romance films. He did, however, spot something he liked

"We could go see the Dark Knight"

"Ah, so you're a closet nerd" Axel jested

"No I'm not! I just like Batman!"

He pointed at Roxas "Admit it! I outed your nerdness!"

Roxas rolled his eyes and laughed "Do you want to go see it or not? It doesn't start for three hours"

"Yeah, it looks cool. Lets get some tickets and then we can wander around for a bit"

Roxas patted down the sides of his trousers "Oh crap. I forgot my wallet"

He mentally hit himself for forgetting his munny on such an important day. He'd been in such a rush to get the school day over with that he flew out of the house that morning and must have left it on the side.

Axel took out his own "Don't worry..." He winced as he saw he didn't have enough to cover both of them. "…erm, tell you what. It won't take long to get to your place on the bike. We'll go pick it up"

So the two headed back to Roxas' house "I'll just run in and grab it" the blonde said as he jumped from the bike. "Just wait here a second"

Axel loitered in front of the house "Sure, no worries"

Roxas opened the front door and walked into the living room. He froze. On the couch were Sora and Riku. Sora's legs were in the air and Riku was moving rhythmically, each movement earning a gasp or moan from Sora. Roxas just stood, wide-eyed at the spectacle before him. Riku lent down to kiss at Sora's neck, letting the brunette have a full view of Roxas standing in the doorway.

"AH! Roxas!" at the scream Riku's head whipped round.

"Hey Rox, is everything o-Argh!?" Axel had quickly become bored with standing outside and had come in to investigate. What he found was Riku staring right at him. The two parties stayed frozen, not saying anything. Axel grabbed Roxas' shoulder and a wallet he saw on the side, which he presumed was his date's. Then they made a swift exit.

"Axel, they were-"

"Yeah I know"

"Riku was…"

"I know Rox. Here's your wallet" Axel put the small blue object into Roxas' slightly shaking hands

"This isn't my wallet. It's Riku's"

Axel shrugged "Riku can pay for your emotional scarring"

So Riku's munny bought their tickets and Axel paid for their food. It wasn't fancy, just a take-out pizza box split between them. They sat with their legs hanging over the edge of the large stone bridge and looked over the industrial site that was Hollow Bastion. Roxas reached into the box and took another slice of his half of the pizza; he never liked complicated food so his side was simply pepperoni. Axel's however, had anything and everything; the redhead had issues getting the food to his mouth without toppings flying off and plummeting toward the people below them.

Watching Axel push the last of one of his crusts into his mouth a thought occurred to Roxas "I'll give you the munny for this when I get my wallet back"

Axel swallowed and then replied, "Don't worry about it"

"I'm the one that should be paying"

"What? Just because you asked me to come here? Lets face it, this isn't exactly a conventional date so I'm all for giving up on 'roles'"

The blonde smirked "I thought you liked being the girl?"

"I see… so this is where we're going. Ok" At that Axel stood up on the bridge wall and held the pizza box over his head "Ha! Get your food now Shorty!"

"Axel be careful! You'll fall!" Roxas squeaked. Axel fake-wobbled which caused another shrill sound to leave his date's lips "Stop it!"

Sitting back down he laughed and winked "Reflexes of a cat, baby" placing the pizza box back down between them Axel received a punch on the arm for being so reckless. A little part of him happy due to the younger boy's concern.

After sitting a little longer Roxas looked at his watch "The movie starts soon, we should get going"

"Sure" Axel swung his legs from over the edge and launched himself from the wall. He had planned to land mid-walk and have Roxas impressed with his prowess. What happened was he landed, his leg gave way and he stumbled sideways hopping as he went. Righting himself, blush smeared across his face, he found Roxas laughing.

"Reflexes of a cat huh?" Smiling, Roxas carefully got down, put the empty pizza box in the bin and grabbed Axel's hand "C'mon Kitty"

In the movie theatre the two teenagers sat together and shared popcorn. Axel couldn't help but continuously glance over at Roxas. The younger boy was so engrossed in the movie that he only tore his eyes away from the screen to smile at Axel when their hands accidentally touched reaching for their snack. Axel was enjoying the way the light was flitting across the other's face when Roxas finally caught him staring.

"What is it?"

Startled, green eyes returned to the film "Nothing"

"Do I have popcorn stuck to me or something?" He started to feel around his face for the imaginary popcorn

"No, no you don't. Well…" Axel turned to the blue eyes "You've got a little bit of salt… just… here" He licked his finger and gently wiped the side of Roxas' mouth.

Said mouth immediately went dry and Roxas thanked the darkened theatre for hiding his red face. He had been sitting with his hands in his lap, as the movie progressed and Axel was watching it more for fear of getting caught again, Roxas tried a daring move. He moved his hand over from his own legs, with what he hoped was stealth, and softly placed it on Axel's knee. He swallowed hard as he felt the leg tense beneath his touch and Axel shifted in his seat. He thought about retreating until a slender hand was placed on top of his own. His eyes quickly darted sideways to see Axel's smiling face. Keeping his grin to himself they settled and stayed like that until they left.

They were still holding hands when they left the cinema. It was dark outside and there weren't many streetlights once they were past the centre of the town and heading towards where Axel had left his motorbike. As his vision became more limited Roxas hugged closer to Axel's arm "Are you cold?" the taller boy looked down at him, concerned

"N-no," he stammered, "I'm fine"

"Well, just in case" Axel removed his arm from Roxas' grip and placed it around the blonde boy's shoulders, pulling him even closer to him. Roxas couldn't help but smile as he nuzzled into the black shirt that clung to Axel's chest.

They walked like that until they reached their transport home. The blonde's heart was pounding and the beat sped up upon hearing Axel's ram within his ribcage. The date had gone how he had imagined it, if not better.

_It has to end perfectly_

Roxas knew what he had to do but he was having trouble gathering the courage to do it. He was dragged out of his thoughts when Axel removed his comforting arm to retrieve the helmets out of the back of his bike. The redhead sat on the bike seat and held a helmet out to Roxas "You ready?"

_Now or never_

Roxas swallowed hard and mentally steadied himself. His face was suddenly determined which caused Axel to raise an eyebrow in confusion. "Yes. I'm ready. There's been something I've been meaning to do"

"Oh, what's-" Axel's reply was stopped by Roxas mounting the bike backwards and facing him. On the raised front section of the bike there was little height difference between them and Axel's eyes were level with Roxas' forehead. Blue eyes found his green and his mouth was slightly agape.

Roxas looked into the eyes he was sure were trying to hypnotise him. He had started it now, if he didn't act upon the situation then nothing may become of it. He heart was beating so hard that it was beginning to hurt, his hands were becoming clammy from nerves and he thought Axel must be wondering what was going on. His breath was short; at a sharp intake into his lungs he felt warmth on his cheek. Axel was finding it difficult to breath as well and the older boy's breaths were shallow, he noticed that the green eyes had yet to stop staring at him. Roxas tried to read what they were saying.

_He wants it too_

With that, his resolve was solid. Roxas leant forward and touched his lips to Axel's, his entire body suddenly became warm and he was lightheaded. He wasn't sure what to do next and so gently pressed his lips harder onto his date's as he closed his eyes. His heart skipped as Axel reacted. Helmets were dropped as Roxas felt strong arms encircle his waist and pull him closer. The kiss deepened and their lips parted for a moment before meeting again. A tongue tickled his bottom lip and Roxas opened his mouth to allow it passage as he threw his arms around Axel's neck.

Roxas felt elated as his and Axel's tongues danced to a melody that they'd never hear. He entwined his fingers into red locks as Axel gripped Roxas' back to diminish the already little space between them. Both teens were becoming breathless as they fought to never be separated. Roxas didn't care if he ever took another breath.

He didn't know how long they stayed like that. Time didn't matter anymore. As soft lips continued to caress his own Roxas' heart was doing summersaults and his mind was nowhere near rational thought.

There was only one thing that he knew for definite; He was never letting this go.

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Thanks for reading guys. Reviews are virtual cookies and love. Thanks to all of you who are following me for this story!


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